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The B. S. Wright held in the Ice at Square Island Harbok. 
(From a photograph by Bradford.) 

Frontispiece^ 



The Labrador Coast. 



JOURNAL OF TWO SUMMER CRUISES 
TO THAT REGION. 



WITH NOTES ON ITS EARLY DISCOVERY, ON THE ESKIMO, 

ON ITS PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY, GEOLOGY 

AND NATURAL HISTORY, 



BY 

ALPHEUS SPRING PACKARD, M.D,, Ph.D., 

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK; AND OF THE 
APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB, BOSTON. 



•piitb /iRaps anJ) irUuBtrations. 



NEW YORK : 

N. D. C. HODGES, Publisher, 
47 Lafayette Place. 

LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. 
1891. 



^1 nu 

• F/3 



I^C' 



TO THE MEMORY OF 

PAUL A. CHADBOURNE, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF WILLIAMS COLLEGE, AND FOR SOME 

TIME PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY AND NATURAL 

HISTORY IN BOVVDOIN COLLEGE, AND WHO 

CONDUCTED THE FIRST STUDENTS' 

EXPEDITION FROM WILLIAMS 

COLLECE TO LABRADOR, 

' THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY HIS FORMER PUPIL AND FRIEND, THE AUTHOR, WHO 

GLADLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE ENCOURAGEMENT 

AND MANY KINDNESSES RECEIVED FROM HIM 

IN HIS EARLY STUDENT DAYS. 



PREFACE. 



The Labrador Peninsula is less known than the interior of 
Africa or the wastes of Siberia. Its rivers are still stocked 
with salmon ; its inland waters are the breeding places of count- 
less birds. Its numerous and deep fiords, and the splendid 
mountain scenery of the northern coast, with its Arctic ice- 
fields and thousand bergs, and the Eskimos, christianized and 
heathen, will never cease to tempt to this threshold of the Arc- 
tic regions the hardy explorer or the adventurous yachtsman. 

Though this book is mainly based on observations and col- 
lections made by the author in his early student days, it was 
thought that some general and standard account of the Labra- 
dor coast, its geography, its people, its fisheries, its geology, as 
well as its animals and plants, might be useful, even if future 
explorations of the great fiords and of the interior plateaux 
and rivers might in time result in far more complete works. 

The scientific results, geological and zoological, are reprinted 
from the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History 
for 1867. Chapters I, II, III, and VI are reprinted by per- 
mission from the Bulletin of the American Geographical 
Society for 1888. Chapters IV and XIII first appeared in the 
American Naturalist, and Chapter V is reprinted from Apple- 
tons' Journal, 

Sportsmen and ornithologists will be interested in the list 
of Labrador birds by Mr. L. W. Turner, which has been kind- 

5 



5 Preface. 

ly revised and brought down to date by Dr. J. A. Allen. Dr. 
S. H. Scudder has contributed the list of butterflies, and Prof. 
John Macoun, of Ottawa, Canada, has kindly prepared the list 
of Labrador plants. The proof of this chapter has, in his 
absence, been read by Mr. Sereno Watson, Curator of the 
Harvard Herbarium, and who hds kindly made some addi- 
tional notes and corrections. 

Much pains has been taken to render the bibliography 
complete, and the author is indebted to Dr. Franz Boas and 
others for several titles and important suggestions ; and it is 
hoped that this feature of the book will recom.mend it to col- 
lectors of Americana. 

The author also acknowledges his great indebtedness to 
William Bradford, Esq., the Arctic traveller and artist, for con- 
stant aid and courtesies extended while a member of his party, 
and for the gift of a number of photographs of the coast scenery 
and of the Eskimos, some of which have been reproduced in 

this volume. 

The results of the three Canadian expeditions to Hudson s 
Bay under Lieut. A. R. Gordon, R. N., of which Dr. Robert 
Bell was the naturalist and geologist ; and of the journeys of 
Dr. K. R. Koch, and of Mr. Randle F. Holme, have been in- 
cluded, so that the work has been brought down to date and 
represents our present knowledge of the coast and interior. 

It is hoped that the volume will serve as a guide to the 
Labrador coast for the use of travellers, yachtsmen, sportsmen, 
artists, and naturalists, as well as those interested in geographi- 
cal and historical studies. 

Brown University, 
Providence, R. I. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. The Physical Geography of Labrador. ... i 

" II. Who First Saw THE Labrador Coast ? ... 21 

" III. The Geographical Evolution of Labrador. . . 33 

" IV. Life and Nature in Southern Labrador. ... 60 

" V. One of Fifty Days in Southern Labrador. . . 82 

" VI. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. 

I. From Boston to Henley Harbor. .... 93 
" VII. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. 

II. From Henley Harbor to Cape St. Michael. . . 120 
" VIII. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. 

III. From Cape St. Michael to Hopedale. . . 140 
" IX. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. 

IV. Hopedale and the Eskimos. .... 197 
" X. A Summer's Cruise to Northern Labrador. 

V. The Return Voyage to Boston 209. 

" XL Recent Explorations. 226 

" XII. The Civil History of Labrador, with a Brief Ac- 
count OF its Fisheries 234 

" XIII. The Labrador Eskimos and their Former Range 

Southward. 245 

" XIV. The Geology of the Labrador Coast. . . . 279 

" XV. The Zoology OF the Labrador Coast. , . . 355 

" XVI. The Botany of the Labrador Coast. . . . 448 

•' XVII. Bibliography relating to the Early Explora- 
tions, the Geography, and the Civil and Nat- 
ural History of Labrador. , , , , , 4.75 



CHAPTER I. 

THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

Our knowledge of the interior of the Labrador penin- 
sula is still so scanty, owing- to its inaccessibility, its un- 
navigable rivers, the shortness of the summer season, and 
the lack of game, as well as the enormous numbers of 
black flies and mosquitoes, that any description of this 
country must long remain imperfect. The only scientific 
explorer of the interior is Professor Hind, who ascended 
the river Moisie, which, however, is a confluent of the St. 
Lawrence, and is in fact situated only near the borders 
of Labrador, in the province of Quebec. None of the 
larger rivers of Labrador have been explored to near 
their sources; and no one except Indians and but a 
single employe of the Hudson Bay Company (Mr. Mc- 
Lean) has ever crossed any considerable portion of. the 
interior. And yet the peninsula is well watered with 
streams, rivers, and chains of lakes. I have been in- 
formed by residents that the Indians of the interior, pre- 
sumably the Mountaineers, can travel in their canoes 
from the mouth of the Esquimaux River, which empties 
into the Strait of Belle Isle, across the country to the 
Hudson Bay posts in Hamilton Inlet. So far as we 
have been able to gather from maps and the accounts 
of explorers, such as McLean and Davies, the latter of 
whom published an account of the Grand or Hamilton 



2 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

River, and the Moravian missionaries Kohlmeister and 
Krioch, who in their " Journal of a Voyage from Ok- 
kak" described the Koksoak River and its probable 
source, as well as from our own scanty observations 
taken from elevations near the coast, the interior of 
Labrador is thickly studded with lakes, somewhat as in 
the Adirondack region of New York, though the in- 
terior country is far more broken and mountainous. 

It is certainly most desirable that explorers should" 
penetrate this vast and unknown wilderness, however 
forrpidable may seem the barriers to travel. These 
obstacles would be the rapids and water-falls, the long 
and difficult portages or carries, and the unceasing 
plague of mosquitoes and black flies. But the annoy- 
ance from insects might not be greater than that en- 
countered by explorers in Siberia, or by trout or salmon, 
fishermen in northern New England and Canada, while 
the difficulties and dangers of river navigation would 
not compare with those of a passage through the Colo- 
rado River. The route which would be most prolific 
in results would be to ascend the Meshikumau or Es- 
quimaux River from its mouth near Salmon Bay, in the 
Strait of Belle Isle, to its source, and thence to connect 
with the probably adjacent source of Grand or Hamil-^ 
ton River to the Hudson Bay post at Rigolet, in 
Hamilton or Invuktoke Inlet. Another journey whicli 
would be productive of good geographical results would 
be to cross the peninsula from Prince Rupert's Land by 
way of Rupert River and Lake Mistassini to Hamilton 
Inlet. The Koksoak River should be explored to its 
sources, and the low, fiat, wooded region of the East 
Main, lying between Hudson Bay and the Labrador 



MAPS OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 3 

coast-region, should be adequately mapped. At present, 
less is known of the vast region between Hudson Bay 
and the Atlantic Ocean than of perhaps any region of 
similar extent in North America ; although the results 
of exploration might be of more value to geographical 
and geological science than to trade and commerce. 

Thanks to the labors of the Moravian missionaries, 
we now have a much better knovyledge of the intricacies 
of the extreme northern coast of Labrador than is af- 
forded by the charts of the British Admiralty or the 
United States Coast Survey ; and it is to the rare op- 
portunity we have been generously afforded by the 
officers of the Moravian Society in London and Herrn- 
hut, Saxony, that we are able herewith to present maps 
which are at least approximately correct, and which 
must for a long time to come be the only source of 
any exact knowledge of the multitudinous bays, inlets, 
promontories, and islands of this exceedingly diversi- 
fied coast. 

The first special map of Northern Labrador to be 
published was that by the Moravian Brethren Kohl- 
meister and Knoch. It comprised the northern ex- 
tremity of Labrador, north of latitude 57°, including 
Ungava Bay, and appeared in 18 14. 

Previous to this, Cartwright, in 1792, had published 
a map of Sandwich Bay and adjacent regions. Then 
succeeded the general chart of the coast published by 
Admiral Bayfield, in 1827, and the later charts of the 
British Admiralty. 

In the United States Coast Survey report for i860, 
besides an imperfect outline of the coast given in Mr. 
Lieber's geological map of the Labrador coast, there is 



4 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

a special map of Eclipse Harbor surveyed by Lieut. - 
Commanding A. Murray, United States Navy, and 
drawn to a scale of -^^, with the soundings indicated. 

i\bout the year 1873 (^^e date is not given on thg 
copy of the map we have received) appeared a map of 
that portion of the coast embracing the sites of the 
principal Moravian stations and lying between N. lat. 
55° and 59°. It was prepared by L. T. Reichel from 
the sketches made by himself, and published in the lack 
of any authentic maps of the coast. For a copy of this 
and the map of Aivektok or Eskimo Bay we are in- 
debted to the officers of the Society in Herrnhut, Sax- 
ony. On this map are given the route of the ship-chan- 
nel from the southward to Hopedale, and thence to the 
different Moravian stations up to Hebron ; also the 
overland sledge-routes between Port Man vers and Ok- 
kak, and the latter station and Hebron. There is also 
an attempt to give in a general way the elevation of the 
coast, and the elevation of Kaumajet Mt. and Mt. Kig- 
lapeit is given as 4,000 feet. Scales of German and of 
English miles are also given. 

The second special map was also prepared by Rev. L. 
T. Reichel, and published in 1873. It gives what is 
probably by far the most authentic map of Hamilton In- 
let and Aivekt6k, or Eskimo Bay, and the coast north- 
ward, the whole area mapped being comprised between 
latitudes 53° 20' and 56° 20' ; it iS of special value in 
giving a capital idea of the intricate fiord structure of 
the coast, and also a census of the white and Eskimo 
residents. 

We have also been favored by B. Latrobe, Esq., Sec- 
retary of the Moravian Missions in London, with the 



THE LABRADOR PLATEAU. 



loan of a MS. map, by the late Rev. Samuel Weiz, of 
the coast from Byron Bay in latitude 54° 40' around to 
the mouth of George River in Ungava Bay, and kindly 
allowed to copy it. 

With the aid of the new maps of Messrs. Reichel and 
Weiz we have been able to have compiled the new gen- 
eral map of the Labrador coast herewith presented ; the 
southern portion of the coast being reproduced from the 
British Admiralty and U. S. Coast Survey charts, as 
well as those of the Hydrographic Office, U. S. Navy 
Department, as follows : 

No. 9. — River and Gulf of St Lawrence, Newfound- 
land, Nova Scotia, and the banks adjacent; Sheet 
I. English and French Surveys. Published March, 
1868. 
No. 731.— Anchorages N. E. coast of Labrador, from 

Br. Surveys. Published Sept., 1876. 
No. 809.— Coast of Labrador, Cape St. Charles to 
Sandwich Bay. Br. Surveys to 1882. 
There are in Lt. Gordon's Report of the Hudson 
Bay Expedition of 1885, charts of the Ottawa Islands 
in Hudson Bay, and of one of the islands at Cape 
Chidley. 

In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is an 
oblong mass of Laurentian rocks situated between the 
50th and 62d parallels of north latitude. On the east- 
ern or Atlantic coast it rises abruptly from the ocean as 
an elevated plateau, forming the termination of the 
Laurentian chain, which here spreads out into a vast 
waste of hills and low mountains.* 



* The mountains in the Quebec Province which appear in the accompanying: 
map are hypothetical, and were wrongly inserted by the artist. 



6 THr. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

This plateau of hills and mountains, with barren table- 
lands, rises abruptly from the sea-level, presenting a lofty 
but stern and forbidding front to the ocean, throughout 
the whole extent of i,ioo miles of coast from the Strait 
of Belle Isle to Cape Wolstenholme. 

Mountains. — On the northern shores of the Strait of 
Belle Isle the general elevation of the coast is from 500 
to 800 feet, and the highest mountains are the three 
Bradore Hills, which are respectively 1,135, i>220, and 
1,264 f^ct in height. From Chateau Bay and Cape 
Charles the coast rises in height northwards, until at 
Square Island the higher elevations form mountains 
about 1,000 feet high. Going farther on, the Mealy 
Mountains, said to rise to an elevation of 1,482 feet, are 
seen forming a range extending along the peninsula situ- 
ated between Sandwich Bav and Eskimo Bav, with 
Hamilton Inlet. 

Still higher is Mt. Misery, which we suppose to be 
the same elevation as Mt. Allagaigai, a noble mountain 
mass rising to an altitude of 2,170 feet, forming the 
summit of an elevated plateau region lying half-way 
between Cape Harrison and Hopedale. It is a con- 
spicuous peak seen when crossing the mouth of Ham- 
ilton Inlet, and we well remember the grandeur of its 
appearance when partly wreathed in clouds, which left 
its summit so exposed as to make it look much higher 
than in reality. 

The highest elevations in Labrador rise from the 
irregular coast range between latitude 57° and 60°; and 
judging from the views published by Dr. Lieber in the 
U. S. Coast Survey report for i860, and by Professor 
Bell in the Report of the Canadian Geological Survey 



THE MOUNTAIN RANGES OF LABRADOR. 7 

for 1884, the scenery of this part of the country is 
wonderfully wild and grand, rivalling that of the coast of 
Norway, and of the coast of Greenland, the mountains 
being about as high as in those regions. According to 
Prof. Bell: "After passing the Strait of Belle Isle, the 
Labrador coast continues high and rugged, and although 
there are some interruptions to the general rule, the 
■elevation of the land near the coast may be said to in- 
crease gradually in going northward, until within seventy 
statute miles of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a 
height of about 6,000 feet above the sea. Beyond this 
it again diminishes to this cape, where it is 1,500 feet. 
From what I have seen" quoted of Labrador, and from 
what I have been able to learn through published ac- 
counts from the Hudson Bay Company's officers and 
the natives, and also judging from the indications af- 
forded by the courses of the rivers and streams, the 
ihighest land of the peninsula lies near the coast all along, 
constituting, in fact, a regular range of mountains parallel 
to the Atlantic seaboard. In a general way, this range 
becomes progressively narrower from Hamilton Inlet 
to Cape Chudleigh." * The highest mountains in Labra- 
dor were previously said by Messrs. Kohlmeister and 
Knoch to rise from a chain of high mountains terminat- 
ing in the lofty peaks near Aulezavik Island and Cape 
Chidley. One of the smallest of these mountains, 
Mount Bache, was measured in i860 by the Eclipse 
Expedition of the U. S. Coast Survey, and found to be 
.2,150 feet above the sea-level. This mountain is a 
gneiss elevation, and a sketch on the geological chart by 

* Observations on the Geology, etc., of the Labrador Coast, etc., Rep. of 
^Geological Survey of Canada, 1884, p. 10 DD. 



8 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

Mr. Lieber, the geologist of the expedition, shows it to» 
be rounded by glacial action, while lofty, " wild volcanic- 
looking mountains form a water-shed in the interior,, 
whose craggy peaks have evidently never been ground; 
down by land-ice into domes and rounded tops." 

While the highest elevations have never been meas- 
ured, the height of three of the lesser mountains along 
this part of the coast appears to have been roughly as- 
certained. Professor Bell states that the mountains om 
either side of Nachvak Inlet, about 140 miles south of 
Cape Chidley, "rise to heights of from 1,500 to 3,400' 
feet, but a few miles inland, especially on the south side,, 
they appear to attain an altitude of 5,000 to 6,000 feet,- 
which would correspond with the height of The Four 
Peaks, near the outer coast line, about midway hetweem 
Nachvak and Cape Chudleigh." The mountains around: 
Nachvak, he adds, "are steep, rough-sided, peaked, and: 
serrated, and have no appearance of having been glaci- 
ated, excepting close to the sea-level." These mountains 
are formed of Laurentian gneiss, " notwithstanding tlieir 
extraordinary appearance, so different from the smooth, 
solid, and more or less rounded outlines of the hills 
composed of these rocks in most other parts of the 
Dominion." The height of these mountains was^evi- 
dently roughly estimated from that of an escarpment on 
the south side of the inlet at the Hudson Bay Company's 
port, which "rises to a height of 3,400 feet, as ascer- 
tained by Commander J. G. Bolton" (p. 14 DD). 

According to the British Admiralty chart and the 
Newfoundland Pilot, Cape Chidley rises to a height 
of 1,500 feet above the sea, and the highest point of the 
Button Islands has an equal elevation (Bell, p. 17 DD). 



THE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 9 

Port Burwell is situated on the island of which Cape 
Chidley is the northeastern point. This island is sepa- 
rated from the mainland by McLelan's Strait. '* Nu- 
naingok is situated on an alluvial flat, extending between 
the two branches of the strait. The hill which rises 
steeply on the south side of it is about 700 feet high ; but 
farther in, between the branches and on either side of 
them, the mountains are from 1,500 to 2,500 feet high, 
and have ragged tops and sides" (Bell, p. 19 DD). 

In his report for 1885 Professor Bell gives no additional 
measurements of mountains, but observes : " The moun- 
tains everywhere in this vicinity [Nachvak Inlet] give 
evidence of long-continued atmospheric decay. The an- 
nual precipitation at the present time is not great, other- 
wise small glaciers would probably form among these 
mountains, which lie between latitudes 58° and 60°, and 
which overlook a sea bearing field-ice for half the year, 
and from which bergs are never absent. Patches of snow, 
however, remain throughout the summer in shaded parts 
of the slopes and on the highest summits, which range 
from 4,000 to 6,000 feet above the ocean." "^ Raised 
beaches were observed on both sides of Nachvak Inlet. 

South of the region visited by Professor Bell are the 
two mountains of Kaumajet and Kiglapeit, both of which 
are put at an elevation of 4,000 feet on Rev. L. T. 
Reichel's map. Of these the former constitutes a penin- 
sula, off which lies the island of which Cape Mugford is 
the eastern promontory ; while Kiglapeit forms the great 
headland lying between Nain and Okkak in latitude 
about 57°, and of which Port Manvers is one of the in- 
dentations. 



*AT)n. Rep. Geol. Surv. Canada, New Ser,, vol. i., 1885, p. 8 DD, 1886. 



lO THE PHYSICAL GKOGRAI'IIY OF LABRADOR. 

From these facts it will be seen that along this part of 
the northern coast, mountains as high as the Ad iron clacks, 
and even the White Mountains of New Hampshire, 
plunge directly into the sea, and are as wild and sublime 
as the coast mountains of Norway and Greenland. 

Drainage and Rivers. — Of the water-sheds and water- 
systems of Labrador our knowledge is mostly conjecture, 
on account of the lack of information regarding the in- 
terior. In none of the charts and maps are the rivers 
and internal lakes accurately represented, and there is the 
widest discrepanc}^ between the different maps. 

The Labrador plateau has an area of about 420,000 
square miles. It has a coast-line of about 1,100 miles, 
stretching from the Strait of Belle Isle to Cape Wolsten- 
holme, and its greatest breadth is said to be 600 miles. 
It lies between the 49th and 63d parallels of latitude, 
and the 55th and 79th meridians. Bounded on the east 
Iby the Atlantic Ocean, and on the north and west by 
Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay, its southw^estern limits 
are defined by the Bersiamits, Mistassini, and Rupert 
rivers. The broadest and in general highest portion of 
the plateau appears to be in the southern portion of the 
peninsula, and it is here that the larger rivers appear to 
take their rise. 

From the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence and Strait of Belle Isle the Labrador plateau rises 
until it reaches a vast table-land or water-shed in the in- 
terior, the edge of which has been reached by Professor 
Hind in his explorations of the Moisie River. 

This elevated region is thought by Professor Hind to 
attain a height of 2,240 feet above the sea-level. Pro- 
fessor Hind says of the table-land from which the river 



THE LABRADOR TABLE-LAND. II 

Moisie, and also, probably, the Esquimaux as well as 
Hamilton rivers take their rise: "It is pre-eminently 
sterile, and where the country is not burned, caribou 
moss covers the rocks, with stunted spruce, birch, and 
aspen in the hollows and deep ravines. The whole of 
the table-land is strewed with an infinite number of boul- 
ders, sometimes three and four deep; these singular 
erratics are perched on the summit of every mountain 
and hill, often on the edges of cliffs ; and they vary in 
size from one foot to twenty in diameter. Language 
fails to depict the awful desolation of the table-land of 
the Labrador peninsula." This table-land or water-shed 
is probably more or less parallel to the Strait of Belle 
Jsle, and situated between loo and 150 miles inland. 
It probably terminates to the northeast in the Mealy 
Mountains. Numerous rivers descend the steep south- 
ern slope into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Of these the 
Moisie and Esquimaux rivers are the largest. They are 
supposed to arise from a chain of lakes on the summit 
of the water-shed, which also gives rise to the Kenamou 
-River, 

The Moisie River forms part of the St. Lawrence River 
system. It is 250 miles long, and flows south, empty- 
ing mto that river near the Bay of Seven Islands, at a 
pomt west of Anticosti and opposite the northern shore 
of the Gaspe Peninsula. From this point the streams 
Tunnmg into the Gulf assume, the further we go east, a 
N. W. and S. E. direction. Such is that of the Meshi- 
kumau or Esquimaux River, which empties into the 
western mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at the lower 
Caribou Island. This stream is about 250 miles long, as 
I learned from residents, and is only navigable for about 



12 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

twelve miles from its mouth by ordinary fishing-boats. 
There is no large river between this and Hamilton River, 
which flows into the Atlantic in a direction a little north of 
east. The latter river seems to flow in a fissure that runs 
at right angles to the line of upheaval in the syenite and 
traps of the Atlantic coast ; as upon the Gulf coast the 
rivers flow from the northwest along natural fissures in 
the earth's crust that run at right angles to th^e axis of 
elevation of the Laurentian chain on the north side of 
the St. Lawrence. In this connection it should be no- 
ticed that the fiords on the Atlantic coast of Labrador 
assume the same direction, and though they agree much 
in this respect with the direction of those farther south, 
there is a yet greater west and east course as we go north- 
ward toward Cape Chidley, until beyond latitude 58' 
the fiords run in a N. W. and S. E. direction, especially 
on the Hudson Bay slope. According to Davies, the 
Grand or Flamilton River is supposed to rise from a 
chain of lakes in the "rear of the Seven Islands, and 
flovvs for a considerable distance on the top of the ridge, 
if I may so express it, between the head-waters of the 
rivers falling into the !St. Lawrence and those falling 
into the Hudson Bay and Strait, for they are said by the 
Indians to be quite close to the waters of the Grand 
River on either side." Our author also states that, " two 
hundred miles from its mouth it forces itself through a 
range of mountains that seems to border the table-land 
of the interior, in a succession of tremendous falls and 
rapids for nearly twenty miles. Above these falls the 
river flows with a very smooth and even current." 
McLean in 1830 descended the river from the now aban- 
doned Fort Nasquapee, situated on Lake Petchikapou, 



THE RIVERS OF LABRADOR. 1 3 

to its mouth. He had reached the fort from Ungava 
Bay. Two other important rivers empty into Invuk- 
toke Bay : the Kenamou, which flows in from the south, 
and the Nasquapee or Northwest River, which is a larger 
stream with a very circuitous southeasterly course. 

Professor Hind gives us the fullest information as to 
the rivers of this region, and I should regard his map as, 
in this respect, the most authentic one yet published. 
The situations of the rivers and lakes as given in our 
map are copied from his, with the exception of those on 
the Atlantic coast mapped by Messrs. Reichel and 
Weiz. Hind, however, strangely ignores the Esqui- 
maux River, which empties into the Strait of Belle Isle.* 
According to Hind, whose work appeared in 1863, and 
who obtained his information from employes of the 
Hudson Bay Company: "The couriers of the Hudson 
Bay Company traverse the country between Musquano 
(or Natashquan) and Hamilton Inlet two or three times, 
every year. The journey can be made in fifteen days 
in canoes, and this route has long been a means of com- 
munication between Hamilton Inlet and the Gulf. The 
St. Augustine forms the great canoe route of the Mon- 
tagnais through this part of the country. . . . The 



* "The Kenamou River, which enters Hamilton Inlet from the south, cuts 
through the Mealy Mountains thirty miles from the coast ; it is a succession of 
rapids, and scarcely admits of navigation, even by canoes. The Nasquapee or 
Northwest River falls into the inlet on the north side, nearly opposite the 
mouth of the Kenamou. The inlet is here twelve miles across. About itwo 
miles from its outlet the Nasquapee River passes through a long narrow lake 
bordered by high mountains. It takes its source in Lake Meshikumau (Great 
Lake), and the river itself, according to Indian custom, is called by the Nas- 
quapees Meshikumau Shipu. There is a canoe communication between this 
river and the Ashwanipi, which is shown on two maps, constructed by Montag- 
nais Indians, in my possession." — Hind's " Labrador,' ii., 138. 



14 TllK PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

St. Augustine, falling into a fine bay of the same nanie^ 
has its source in the lakes and marshes on the table- 
land, which also give rise to the Kenamou, which falls 
into Hamilton Inlet. By this route the Montagnais 
can journey in their canoes from the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence to Hamilton Inlet in seven days." 

The country north of Hamilton Inlet is thus described 
by one of the Hudson Bay Company's officers (presum- 
ably Mr. McLean) who was sent to explore it : " From 
Northwest River House the Nasquapee River is as- 
cended for about sixty-five miles, when it is left at Mont 
a Reine Portage. The country from Mont a Reine 
Portage to Little Seal Lake is as barren and as miser- 
able as can be seen anywhere ; the trees are all burnt, 
and nothing but stones and dry stumps to be seen. On 
the ist of July, 1839, ^^e ice was still firm on Meshiku- 
mau or Great Lake. There is no wood to build on the 
shores of that extensive sheet of water ; it is only at 
Gull Nest Lake that wood remains in that direction. 
The borders of Nasquapee River, when the expedition 
ascended it in June, were still lined with ice, some of it 
ten feet thick." (Hind.) 

South of Hamilton Inlet, after passing the first range 
of mountains on leaving the bay, an elevated plateau is 
gained, says Hind, which continues until the shores of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence are apprdached, when the 
country becomes more mountainous and slopes rapidly 
to the seaside. The breadth of the plateau is 100 miles, 
and it abounds in lakes. 

The Atlantic system of streams to the north is one 
of small rivers flowing into the ocean in an easterly 
course. 



THE RIVERS OF NORTHERN LABRADOR. 1$ 

Ungava Bay receives two important rivers which im- 
perfectly drain the northwestern slope of Western 
Labrador. The smaller of the two is the Kangutlua- 
luksoak or George River, which empties into the bay in 
lat. 38° 57', and is 140 miles long. Its water-shed is 
said by Kohlmeister and Knoch to be a chain of high 
mountains which terminates in the lofty peaks of syenite 
at Aulezavik Island and Cape Chidley. 

The two Moravian missionaries mentioned above state 
in addition that " this chain of mountains may be seen 
from the Kangutlualuksoak River, in Ungava Bay, 
which is collateral proof that the neck of land termin- 
ated to the north by Cape Chidley is of no great 
width. Both the Nain and Okak Esquimaux frequently 
penetrate far enough inland to find the rivers taking a 
westerly course, consequently towards the Ungava coun- 
try. They even now and then have reached the woods 
skirting the estuaries of George and South rivers." 
These missionaries describe the Koksoak or' South 
River as flowing smoothly through a low, rocky (prob- 
ably Silurian) district, and emptying into Ungava Bay 
in lat. 58° 36'. It is said to resemble at its mouth the 
Thames, and affords anchorage for vessels twenty-four 
miles from its mouth. This stream probably arises near 
the source of the Grand or Hamilton River, and flows 
in a N. N. W. direction, probably along a natural fissure 
formed by the juncture of the Silurian rocks and Lau- 
rentian system.* 

* This river is said to have its source in Lake Caniapuscaw, which is 70 miles 
long and 20 broad, situated in the centre of the peninsula, equidistant from the 
St. Lawrence, from Ungava and Hamilton Inlet, being 350 miles from each of 
those points. 

" It is rapid and turbulent, flowing through a partially wooded country. At 



l6 THE PHVSICAI- GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

At the western political boundary-line between Labra- 
dor and Prince Rupert's Land, according to recent maps, 
we find apparently another water-shed, which on the 
eastern slope sends a few streams into the Koksoak 
River, while on its western slope descend several streams 
which flow in a westerly course into Hudson and James's 
bays. 

Thus it will be seen that th^se four river systems take 
their rise from a great water-shed which curves in a 
southwesterly direction from Labrador along the north- 
ern shores of the St. Lawrence River and the Great 
Lakes. 

Lakes. — The following remarks are taken from our 
memoir on the " Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and 
Maine."* 

Labrador is essentially a lake district. Its numerous 
rivers afford a very imperfect system of drainage to a 
country densely covered with lakes, ponds, and pools, 
and morasses innumerable. It resembles in this respect 
the probable aspect of the Lake or Terrace period in 
New England and Canada after the Glacial period, when 



South River House (now abandoned) it receives the Washquah River, which 
forms the route of communication between Ungava Bay and Hamilton Inlet. 
From this point to the sea (150 miles) the current, though strong, is less broken 
by rapids • it also widens very much, and ninety miles from its mouth it is a 
mile in breadth, flowing between high rocky banks, thinly clothed with trees ; 
it is nearly a league in width. Fort Chimo is situated twenty-eight miles from 
the sea." George's River was ascended by officers of the Hudson Bay Com- 
pany to establish relations with the Nascope Indians, near its source. For 220 
miles it was, though full of rapids, deep enough for barges. " The general 
course of the river is north, running parallel to the coast of Labrador, where it 
is at no time more than 100 miles distant, and often much nearer." (Hind.) 
We may expect a full description of the region about Fort Chimo when Mr. L. 
M. Turner's report is issued, as he spent two years at this station. 

* Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, i., 210-303, 1866. 



LABRADOR LAKES. \J 

the present broad rivers' were only chains of lakes, and 
may thus be said to be in an embryonic stage, as its 
river-beds have never been remodelled and scooped out 
into gentle declivities and broad valleys, nor immense 
depths of sand and clay deposited to smooth over the 
inequalities of the rocky surface of the country, such as 
in the temperate zone render a continent inhabitable 
throughout its breadth ; while in Labrador man can only 
inhabit the coast, and gain a liv^elihood from the sea. 

We must distinguish two classes in the lakes of Labra- 
dor, viz.: the deep mountain /rtr;/jr, lying in the interior, 
directly upon the summits of the water-sheds ; and the 
far more numerous broad, shallow lakes and pools spread 
profusely over the surface below the height of land. 
These last occupy shallow depressions and hollows, 
most probably excavated by glaciers in valleys which 
have been simply remodelled by glacial action. The deep 
tarns, on the contrary, evidently fill original depressions, 
sinking between lofty ranges of hills. Da vies says that 
in the region about the source of the Hamilton River 
the lakes are very deep, and lie directly on the height of 
land, while the ponds on the lowlands are shallow ; and, 
on the other hand, those which directly communicate 
with the ocean or with the fiords are in general distin- 
guished for their depth. " This almost universal shal- 
lowness of the lakes is a singular feature, when the nature 
of their borders is taken into consideration, as they are 
generally surrounded by hills, which would lead one to 
look for a corresponding depth in the lake ; but instead 
of this some, are so shallow that for miles there is hardly 
water enough to float a half-loaded canoe. I am in- 
formed by my friend, John McLean, Esq., that this is 



l8 THE PHVSICAT, GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

likewise the case with the lakes lying on the water-shed 
of Ungava Bay. The lakes lying on the table-land are 
said to be deep." He also states that the large lakes in 
the interior are well stocked with fish, while the shallow 
lakes, and, in fact, the deep Ones communicating with 
the ocean, are in general very destitute of them. 

We must believe that the same causes that produce 
the deep fiords likewise account for these deep fissures 
and depressions in the summit of the water-sheds. It is 
evident that any amount of glacial action, however long 
sustained and vast in its operation, can never account for 
these rude, irregular, often " geoclinal," troughs which 
follow lines of fracture and faults, lying along the axis ot 
elevation of mountain chains, or at nearly right angles to 
them. 

Fiords. — The fiords on the Labrador coast are of great 
extent and depth. They are either original lines of frac- 
ture and faults, or what Professor Dana terms geoclinal 
troughs, occurring at the line of juncture of two rock 
formations. Thus, Chateau Bay is a fissure at least 
1,200 feet in depth. The western shore rises 600 feet 
above the sea-level, and the waters of the bay at their 
deepest are 600 feet in depth. This fault must have 
been produced at the time of the upheaval of the syenites 
of the coast. 

All the broad, deep bays and fiords on the Atlantic 
Ocean occur at the juncture of the syenites and gneiss. 
There are deep bays between Cape St. Lewis and Cape 
St. Michael's, where syenites rise through the gneiss, 
producing faults and lines of dislocation. The large 
bay just north of Cape St. Michael's occurs at the junc- 
tion of gneiss and " hyperite " rocks. Sandwich Bay 



GLAGIAT. LAKES, I9 

and Hamilton Inlet were formed by the denudation of 
the Domino gneiss. Despair Harl)or is a deep fiord oc- 
curring- at the juncture of the " Aulezavik gneiss" of 
Lieber, with syenitic rocks forming the coast-line between 
this point and Hopedale. The irregular overflows of 
+'^ap and syenitic rocks which enclose the gneiss rocks, 
produce an immense number of cross fiords and channels, 
from the presence of innumerable islands which line the 
coast, and are composed of these eruptive rocks. 

These original fissures and depressions have been 
modified by glaciers, by frost and shore-ice and icebergs, 
and by the waves of the sea. 

The shallow lakes, formed most probablv bv s^laciers, 
lie in shallow troughs, upon a thin bed of gravel and 
boulders. We only learn in somiC regions, especially in 
Southern Labrador, that the country has been covered 
with boulders by their presence on the banks and in the 
centre of these pools. Clear examples of lakes partially 
surrounded by walls of rock, with the banks at one end 
completed by a barrier of sand and gravel, are frequent. 
Such barriers of drift have lost entirely their resemblance 
to glacial moraines, to which they undoubtedly owe their 
origin, since the drift deposits have been remodelled 
into sea beaches composed of very coarse gravel and 
boulders, while the finer materials have been swept away 
by the powerful " Labrador current," with its burden of 
icebergs and floe-ice that has so effectually removed 
traces of the former presence of what we must believe 
to have been extensive glaciers. 

From all that has been published, it would seem that 
the entire interior of the Labrador peninsula is strewn 
with boulders, having once been covered with land-ice, 



20 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF LABRADOR. 

which flowed into the Atlantic on the east and south, 
and Hudson Bay on the west and north. The forest 
growths sometimes clothe the lower hills, but in general 
are confined to the protected river-valleys and lake 
basins. 

It is to be hoped that at no distant day some skilled 
explorer, with a sufficient knowledge of geology, may 
thread the interior of the peninsula from Ungava to 
Hamilton Inlet, passing thence by the Esquimaux River 
to the Strait of Belle Isle. The region from the head- 
waters of the Hamilton River to Hudson Bay should 
also be traversed, and when this is done we shall be pro- 
vided with a knowledge of this vast, shadowy, gloomy, 
forbidding region, of which we now apparently know 
less than of the interior of Alaska, the tundras of Siberia, 
or the plateaus of Central Africa. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST? 

Those rovers of the northern seas, the Norsemen, 
pushing out from the fiords of Greenland in their one- 
masted craft, no larger than our coasters or mackerel 
boats, without doubt sighted and coasted along "the 
Labrador," nearly five centuries before John Cabot made 
his first landfall of the American Continent. 

The Labrador coast was not, however, the first Ameri- 
can land visited by the Norsemen.* 

Kohl states that New England was first discovered 
l)y Biarne, in 990. It appears that Heriulf, one of the 
■earliest colonists of Greenland, had a son, Biarne, " who, 
at the time his father went over from Iceland to Green- 
land, had been absent on a trading voyage in Norway. 
Returning to Iceland in 990, and finding that his father, 
with Eric the Red, had gone to the west, he resolved 
to follow him and to spend the next winter with him in 
Greenland. 

"They boldly set sail to the southwest, but having 

* We should acknowledge that, not having access to the primitive sources in 
which the voyages of the Norsemen to the American shores are. described, we 
have placed our dependence on the account given by a learned German geogra- 
pher, J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, as the most authori- 
tative exposition of early voyages and discoveries in northwestern America. 
Kohl's views are based on Rafn's Antiquitates Americanse, (Documentary 
History of the State of Maine. Collections of the Maine Historical Society. 
-Second Series, Vol. r. 1869). 



22 WHO FIRST SAW THE LABRADOR COAST? 

encountered northerly storms, after many days' sail the)^ 
lost their course, and when the weather cleared, they de- 
scried land, not, however, like that described to them as 
' Greenland.' They saw that it was a much more south- 
ern land, and covered with forests. It not being the 
intention of Biarne to explore new countries, but only to 
find the residence of his father in Greenland, he im- 
proved a southwest wind, and turned to the northeast,, 
and put himself on the track for Greenland, After sev- 
eral days' sailing, during which he discovered and sailed 
by other well-wooded lands lying on his left, some high 
and mountainous and bordered by icebergs, he reached 
Heriulfsnas, the residence of his father, in Greenland. 
His return passage occupied nine days, and he speaks of 
three distinct tracts of land, along which he coasted, one 
of which he supposed to have been a large island." 

So much for the facts taken from the Norse records 
and sagas. Dr. Kohl then goes on to say : " That Biarne, 
on this voyage, must have seen some part of the Ameri- 
can east coast is clear from his having been driven that 
way from Iceland by northerly gales. We cannot de- 
termine with any certainty what part of our coast he 
sighted, and what was the southern extent of his cruise. 
But taking into consideration all circumstances and state- 
ments of the report, it appears probable that it was part 
of the coast of New England, and perhaps Cape Cod,, 
which stands far out to the east. One day and night's^ 
sailing with a favorable wind, was, in Iceland and Nor- 
way, reckoned to be about the distance of thirty German 
miles. Two days and ' nights,' therefore, would be sixty 
German miles, and this is about the distance from Cape 
Cod in New England to Cape Sable in Nova Scotia." 



BIARNE S LANDFALL. 2$ 

That the land first seen by Biarne was necessarily so 
far south as Cape Cod does not, we would venture to 
submit, follow from the facts we have quoted. Is it not 
more probable that the country was some portion of 
Nova Scotia, a land as much " covered with forests " as 
New England.? 

But Dr. Kohl maintains that the second land which 
was "well-wooded" was Nova Scotia. In his own 
words : 

"The second country seen by Biarne must, then, 
probably have been Nova Scotia. The distance from 
Nova Scotia to Newfoundland is about three days' sail ; 
and from Newfoundland to the southern part of Green- 
land, a Northman navigator, with fresh breezes, might 
easily sail in four days, and thus Newfoundland was 
probably the third country discovered by Biarne." 

We should not have the hardihood to criticise Dr. 
Kohl's statements and conclusions, if we had not made 
two voyages to Labrador, in which we sailed from Cape 
Cod to Nova Scotia, skirted that coast, approached 
within a mile of Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and spent a 
summer on the northern shores of Belle Isle, opposite 
Newfoundland ; and a second summer in coastino- Lab- 
rador as far north as Hopedale. Hence the general 
appearances of the Nova Scotian, Newfoundland, and 
Labrador coasts are, though in a slight degree, to be 
sure, known to us. 

The records state that the southernmost land seen by 
Biarne was " covered by forests ;" this would apply to 
Nova Scotia as well as to the coast of Massachusetts. It 
i'S then said that without landing, improving a southwest 
wind and steering northeast, "he put himself on the 



24 WHO FIRST SAW THE LAI5KADOR COAST? 

track for Greenland." This would be the course from 
Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, it is true, but such a course 
would also take him from the eastern end of Nova Scotia 
to Cape Race, Newfoundland, while from the present 
position of St. John's the course to the site of the Green- 
land Norse settlements is a northerly one. 

As Kohl states, the distance from Nova Scotia to 
Newfoundland is about three days' sail ; but the wind 
would have to be strong and fair all the time, for the 
distance from Halifax to St. John's, Newfoundland, is 
about 530 miles. A Viking's ship was by no means a 
modern cutter either in her lines or rig. I have seen in 
the Sogne fiord a vessel of forty or fifty tons, her hull 
clumsy and broad, with her single mast placed mid- 
ships and carrying a square sail ; her stern rather high, 
and her prow rising five or six feet above the bows. A 
Norwegian friend observed to me at the time, " There," 
said he, " hang the gunwale of that vessel with shields 
and fill her with armed men, and vou would have a Vik- 
ing's ship !" We doubt whether Biarne's craft could 
have made in " one day and night's sailing with a favor- 
able wind," more than 138 statute miles, or thirty Ger- 
man miles. At such a rate it would take from five to 
six days to go from Halifax to St. John's, Newfound- 
land. The passage by a swift ocean steamer of the 
Allan Line requires from forty-two to forty-eight hours. 

Passing by Newfoundland, which is well-wooded, ex- 
cept on the more exposed northeastern coast, Biarne, 
sailing by a land " said to be high and mountainous, and 
bordered by icebergs, reached Heriulfsnas." This land 
could have been none other than the Labrador coast 
from the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle northward. 



biarne's return voyage. 25 

If Biarne's return passage occupied only nine days, 
he could not possibly have sailed from Cape Cod to 
Greenland in that time. A nine days' trip from Boston 
to the Labrador coast at the mouth of the Strait of Belle 
Isle is a remarkably short one for an ordinary fishing- 
schooner. 

The distance from Boston to the Greenland coast a 
little north of Cape Farewell, where the southernmost 
Norse settlements were made, is about 2,300 miles. 
The southern coast of Labrador is about half-way. The 
•exact sailing distance from Thomaston, Maine, to 
Caribou Island, 'Strait of Belle Isle, Labrador, is 910 
miles. 

The ''Nautilus," the vessel in which I first sailed to 
Labrador, was a staunch schooner of 140 tons. She 
sailed from Thomaston, Maine, June 27, and passing 
around Cape Breton, reached Caribou Island in ten 
•days* (July 7th) : after leaving our party on the Labra- 
dor coast, she set sail for Greenland July 9th, over nearly 
the same route as the Norsemen must have taken. 
From Captain Ranlett of the " Nautilus," I learn that 
he first sighted land on the coast of Greenland on the 
17th, in lat. 62° 58', and long. 52° 05'. The land next 
■seen was about lat. 63° 10', long. 50° 45'. This is about 
fifty miles south of Fiskernaes, and 25 miles north of 
Frederickshaab. The voyage to Greenland was thus 
made in about nine days, as the vessel did not reach 
land before the i8th. The return voyage from God- 
(thaab to Bonne Esperance, Labrador (three miles west 
from Caribou Island), was made in twelve days. The 

* Rev. C. C. Carpenter writes me that he sailed in a fishing-smack from Cari- 
?bou Island Oct. 3d, and made the shores of Maine on the 13th. 



26 WHO FIRST SAW IllK J.ABRADOR COAST? 

" Nautilus" left Godthaab Aug. 13th, and entered the 
Strait of Belle Isle Aug. 24tli, anchoring at Bonne 
Esperance Aug. 25th. Then sailing from Bonne Espe- 
rance Aug. 26th, owing to calms and a storm she did not 
reach Thomaston until September 1 ith, a period of about 
fifteen days. It thus appears that the voyage from the 
mouth of the PenObscot River, Maine, to southern 
Greenland, through the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a shorter 
mate than that of the Northmen east of Newfoundland,, 
took nineteen days, not including the detention on the 
Labrador coast, while the return voyage from southern 
Greenland to Maine required 27 days. 

In 1864 my second trip to the Labrador coast was 
made in a Wellfieet oysterman, a schooner of about 140 
foils, built for speed, with long spars and large sails.. 
She was probably the fastest vessel which ever visited 
the Labrador coast. The voyage from Boston to 
Mecatina Island on the Labrador coast, through the 
Gut of Canso, was made in seven days ; it was proiiably 
the quickest voyage from Massachusetts to Labrador 
ever made. We ran from Provincetown to Port Mul- 
g^rave in the Gut of Canso in just forty-eight hours. 
The return trip from Caribou Island to Boston, a dis- 
tance of about nine hundred miles, was made in nine 
days. The average was therefore just a hundred miles 
a day. How could a Norseman's clumsy craft of forty 
or fifty tons, with but a mainsail and a jib, outdo such 
saiHng as that ? 

The Norse record says that Biarne's " return passage 
occupied nine days," and Kohl adds that '* from New- 
foundland to the southern part of Greenland a North- 
man navigator, with fresh breezes, might easily sail in 



HELLULAND THE MODERN l^ABRADOR, 2J 

four days. But we have seen that with fresh breezes a 
rnodern schooner, at least three times as large as a 
Viking's ship, required eight or nine days to run from a 
point but a few miles from northern Newfoundland, i.e.. 
Belle Isle, to southern Greenland. The distance ffom 
St. John's, Newfoundland, to the Norsemen's colonies in 
southern Greenland is not less than 1,500 miles. To 
perform a voyage of this length in four days would be 
an impossibility for a modern yacht. It is not impossible, 
however, that Biarne sailed from southern Newfound- 
land to Greenland in a period of about nine days. But a 
voyage from Cape Cod to Greenland by an ordinary 
schooner requires at least three weeks, or from twenty 
to thirty days at the most. 

Instead then of accepting Kohl's summary of Biarne's 
voyage stated on p. 63 of his work, we should be in- 
clined to believe, as the results of the expedition, that 
Biarne was the first European to sight the coast of 
Newfoundland, possibly the eastern extremity of Nova 
Scotia, while he also sawthe mountainous, desolate, tree- 
less, rocky coast of Labrador. 

The next Norse adventurer, Leif, the son of Erik, 
not only sighted the Labrador coast but landed on it. 
To this country he gave the name of stony land, or 
" Helluland," a name perpetuated in an Iceland map of 
1570 by Sigurd Stephanius. 

The records tell us that Leif, the son of Erik the 
Red, the first settler in Greenland, having bought 
Biarne's ship in the year 1000, manned her with a crew 
of thirty-five men, among whom was Biarne himself, and 
followed Biarne's track towards the southwest. Kohl 
then says: "They came first to that land which Biarne 



28 WHO FIRST SAW TKK LABRADOR COAST? 

had last seen, which, as I have said, was probably our 
Newfoundland. Here they cast anchor and went on 
shore, for their voyage was not the search of a son after 
his father, but a decided exploring expedition. They 
found the country as Biarne had described it, full of ice 
mountains, desolate, and its shores covered wnth large 
flat stones. Leif. therefore, called it * ITelluland ' (the 
stony land)." 

Here again wc should differ from Kohl as to Leif's 
first landfall. A southw^est course would naturally carry 
him to the Labrador coast, while the description — "full 
of ice mountains, desolate, and its shores covered with 
large flat stones" — well describes the barren, rock-bound, 
treeless coast of Labrador, in distinction from the much 
lower, wooded coast of Newfoundland. Moreover, St. 
John's, Newfoundland, lies nearly due south of the 
southern extremity of Greenland. 

While it is to be doubted whether Biarne ever went 
south of Newfoundland, we see no reason for dis- 
believing the conclusions of Rafn and Kohl, that the 
followers of Biarne, Thorwald and Thorfinn Karlsefne, 
became familiar with Cape Cod and wintered at Vin- 
land. There is no reasonable doubt but that they landed 
on Nova Scotia ; there is no reason to disbelieve the 
records which state that they wintered farther west 
where no snow fell, so that the cattle found their food in 
the open fields, and wild grapes w^ere abundant, as they 
certainly are in Rhode Island and southern Massa- 
chusetts, as compared with Maine or Nova Scotia. 

Without reasonable doubt, then, Helluland of the 
Norse and Icelandic records is Labrador, though it is 
not impossible that the bare and rocky coast of north- 



HELLUr.AND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 29 

eastern Newfoundland was by some regarded as Hellu- 
land. It would be easy for a vessel in those days to 
pass by without seeing the opening into the Strait of 
Belle Isle, and, owing to the somewhat similar scenic 
features of the two lands, to confound the northeastern 
extremity of Newfoundland with Labrador. 

That, as some have claimed, the Norsemen ever 
sailed through the Strait of Belle Isle, coasted along' 
Southern Labrador and wintered at the mouth of the 
river St. Lawrence, is certainly not supported by the 
early Norse records as interpreted by Kohl. 

Their vessels sailed to the seaward of Newfoundland. 
That they did not feel drawn to sojourn in Helluland 
is no wonder. Its coast presented no more attractions 
than Greenland, while the grapes, food, and furs, with 
the verdure and mild winter climate of " Vinland the 
Good," led to one expedition after another, as late per- 
haps as 1347, when, according to the Icelandic annals, 
" a vessel, having a crew of seventeen men, sailed from 
Iceland to Markland." 

Then came the decadence of Norse energy and sea- 
manship, succeeded by the failure of the Greenland col- 
onies, which were overpowered and extinguished by the 
Eskimo. A dense curtain of oblivion thicker and more 
impenetrable than the fogs which still wrap the regions 
of the north, fell upon these hyperborean lands, until, in 
1497, the veil was again withdrawn by an English 
hand.* 

Since the foregoing remarks were sent to the printer, 

*The voyage of Szkolney, the Pole, to the coasts of Greenland and Labrador^ 
is stated to have been performed in 1476. See Humboldt, Examen Critique,, 
ii, p. 152. (N, A. Review, July, 1838, 179.) 



30 WHO FIRST SAW THE T.AP.RADOR COAST? 

Prof. E. N. Horsford's address at the unveiling of the 
statue of Leif Eriksen has appeared. He also adopts 
the general opinion that Helluland was Newfoundland, 
but the language of these extracts convinces us still 
more that Helluland was Labrador. 

In the first translation printed by Prof. Horsford of the 
Saga of Erik the Red, it is stated in the account of the 
expedition of Biarne, that after leaving Iceland bound 
for Greenland, he missed that country and was "borne 
before the wind for maliy days, they knew not whither," 
hnally approaching land which "was not mountainous, 
but covered with wood," with rising ground in many 
parts. Then sailing two daj^s, and putting the ship 
about, leaving the land on the left side, he saw land 
again, "low and level, and overgrown with wood." 
This land was probably Newfoundland, perhaps^ the 
southern or eastern part. We would, however, contend 
that the next or third land which Biarne saw was Lab- 
rador, for the Saga reads : "At length they hoisted 
sail, and turning their prow from land, they stood out 
again to sea ; and having sailed three days with a south- 
west wind, they saw land the third time." This land 
was high and mountainous, and covered with ice. They 
asked Biarne whether he wished to land here. He said, 
"No; for this land appears to me little niviting." 
Without relaxing sail, therefore, they coasted along the 
shore till they perceived that , this was an island. They 
then put the ship about, with the stern towards land, 
and stood out again to sea with the same wind, which 
blowing up very strong, Biarne desired his men to shorten 
sail, forbidding them to carry more sail than with such a 
heavy wind would be safe. "When they had thus 



HELI,Ur,AND THE MODERN LABRADOR. 3.I 

sailed four days, they saw land the fourth time." To- 
wards evening they reached the very promontory not far 
north of Cape Farewell where Heriulf, the father of 
Biarne, dwelt. 

The high, mountainous land, covered with ice, was 
probably Labrador near Cape Harrison, or along the 
coast to the northward, and a Norseman's vessel, with a 
strong, fair wind, could probably sail from that part of the 
Labrador coast to near Cape Farewell, a distance of a 
little over 600 miles, in four days, allowing that a Vik- 
ing's ship of about 60 tons could sail from eight to ten 
miles an hour under a spanking breeze. Certainly they 
could not have made the distance from any part of New- 
foundland, which is about 900 miles, in four days. 

From the account of the expedition of Leif Eriksen : 

"All being now ready, they set sail, and the first land 
to which they came was that last seen by Biarne, 

"They made direct for land, cast anchor, and put out 
in a boat. Having landed, they found no herbage. All 
above were frozen heights ; and the whole space between 
these and the sea was occupied by bare fiat rocks ; whence 
they judged this to be a barren land. Then said Leif, 
" We will not do as Biarne did, who never set foot on 
^hore : I will give a name to this land, and will call it 
"Helluland" [that is, land of broad stones].*" Here 
again we have a much better description of Labrador 
than of northeastern Newfoundland. From there Leif 
tailed to what he called Markland, or " Land of Woods," 
which mav have been southern Newfoundland, or east- 
ern Nov'^a Scotia, or Cape Breton, as it is but two days' 
sail from the Gut of Canso to Cape Cod ; and the Vin- 
land of Leif was undoubtedly the shore lying east and 
•^outh of Cape Cod. 



32 WHO FIRST SAW JlII': LABRADOR COAST? 

From Mr. J. Elliot Cabot's translation of the Saga re- 
lating to Biarne's voyage (Mass. Quart. Rev. 1849, 
quoted by Horsforcl), we take the following reference to 
Helluland. As before, on returning from the souths 
after turning the bow of his vessel from the land and 
sailing out to sea for three days with a W.S.W. wind,. 
Biarne saw a third land ; "but that land was high, moun- 
tainous, and covered with glaciers :" then the wind rose,. 
and they sailed four days to Heriulfsness. 

A.D, 999, Leif set sail. "First they found the land 
which Biarne had found last. . Then sailed they to the 
land and cast anchor, and put off a boat and went ashore,, 
and saw there no grass. Mickle glaciers were over alt 
the higher parts ; but it was like a plain of rock from the 
glaciers to the sea, and it seemed to them that the land 
was good for nothing. Then said Leif : ' We have not 
done about this land like Biarne, not to go upon it ; 
now I will give a name to the land and call it " Hellu- 
land " [flat-stone land].' " 

The northeastern coast of Newfoundland is rather 
low, not mountainous, is somewhat wooded, with cer- 
tainly more or less herbage on the outer islands and 
points. The rock formations are of later age than the 
Laurentian. We are familiar with the appearance of the 
Newfoundland side of the Strait of Belle Isle, which 
decidedly contrasts with that of Labrador opposite. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 

June 24th, 1497, a year before Columbus discovered 
the American continent, the crew of a little vessel, the 
" Matthew," bound from Bristol on a voyage of discov- 
ery to ascertain the shortest line from England to 
Cathay, sighted land. The vessel was under the com- 
mand of John Cabot, who was accompanied by his son 
Sebastian, a lad still under age, perhaps but nineteen or 
twenty years old. Sebastian kept the ship's log ; but 
the narratives of this, as well as his other voyages, have 
been lost. 

The land was called "Prima vista," and it was believed 
by Biddle and Humboldt, as well as Kohl and others, 
that this region which the Cabots first saw was the coast 
of Labrador in 56° or 58° north latitude. While the 
narrative of this momentous voyage has been lost, a map 
of the world ascribed to Sebastian Cabot, and engraved 
in 1549, contained an inscription, of which we will copy 
an extract' translated in Hakluyt's Voyages (iii. 2']'). 

" In the yeere of our Lord 1497. lohn Cabot, a Vene- 
tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set 
out from Bristoll) discouered that kmd which no man 
before that time had attempted, on the 24 of lune about 
fiue of the clocke early in the morning. This land he 
called Prima vista, that is to say. First scene, because c^< 

33 



34 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LAP.KAHOK. 

I suppose it was that part whereof they had the first 
sight from sea. That Island which lieth out before the 
land, he called the Island of S. lohn vpon this occasion, 
as I thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of 
lohn the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to 
weare beast skinnes, and haue them in as great estima- 
tion as we haue our finest garments. In their warres 
they vse bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, woodden clubs, 
and slings. The soile is barren in some places, and 
yeildeth little fruit, but it is full of white beares, and 
stagges farre greater than ours." (Page 27.) 

Kohl seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John 
Cabot was Labrador, because of the presence of white 
bears.* But if the inscription and map are genuine, the 
description of the inhabitants of the island, both men 
and beasts, would better apply to those of the eastern or 
southern coast of Newfoundland. The human beings 
were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the 
Labrador coast the soil is " barren" in all places, while 
the "stagges far greater than ours" may have been the 
moose, which then abounded and still exists in New- 
foundland, and must have been rare, if it ever lived, on 
the coast of Labrador. Moreover the " white bears" 
spoken of as being so abundant may have been a white 
variety of the black bear, or perhaps the " barren ground" 
pale bear of Sir John Richardson may have been fre- 
quent in Newfoundland. It appears to have been of 
smaller size than the brown bear of Europe, because in 
Parmenius' account of Newfoundland, published in 1583, 



* "This agrees much better with the coast of Labrador than with that of 
Newfoundland, to which the white bears very seldom, if ever, come down," 
(Page 133.); 



CABOT THE DISCOVERER OF LABRADOR. 35 

it is said: " Beares also appear about the fishers' stage 
of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they 
seeme to be white, as I conjectured by their skinnes, 
and somewhat lesse than ours." (Hakluyt.) 

On the other hand, the true white or polar bear may 
have frequently visited the eastern coast of Newfound- 
land, as it formerly abounded on the Labrador coast. 

Moreover, nothing is said in the inscription of any 
ice, which at that date, the 24th of June, so abounds 
from the Strait of Belle Isle northward to the polar re- 
gions. Besides, if we contrast the account of this voy- 
age of the two Cabots in 1497 with that of the younger 
Cabot the following year, it seems plain that John 
Cabot's " Prima vista" was Newfoundland rather than 
Labrador.''' ' 

In May, 1498, Sebastian Cabot, under license of 
Henry VII., in command of two ships, manned with 
three hundred mariners and volunteers, again sailed to 
the northwest in search of Cathay. Kohl says: ''We 
have no certain information regarding his route. But 
he appears to have directed his course again to the coun- 
try which he had seen the year before on the voyage 
with his father, our present Labrador." Farther on he 
remarks : " The Portuguese Galvano, also one of the 
original and contemporary authorities on Cabot's voyage 
of 1498, says that, having reached 60° north latitude, he 
and his men found the air very cold, and great islands 
of ice, and from thence putting about and finding the 
land to turn eastward, they trended along by it, to see 



* According to Charles Dean, LL.D., in the Critical History of America, vol. 
ill., John Cabot's landfall was the northern part of Cape Breton Island. 



36 THK GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 

if it passed on the other side. Then they sailed back 
again to the south." 

From this and other statements by Humboldt and 
D'Avezac, Kohl concludes that "Cabot in 1498, without 
doubt, sailed along the coast of Labrador and the west- 
ern shores of Davis's Strait. Finally, after a struggle- 
with the ice off the Cumberland peninsula in 67^° north 
latitude, where he probably lost a number of his men^ 
he abandoned any further advance. He then retraced 
his course southward along the coast of Labrador, and 
probably came to anchor in some bay on the eastern 
coast of Newfoundland, where he rested his men and 
repaired the damage done to his vessels by the Arctic 
ice. His vessel was probably the forerunner of the fleet 
of English, Portuguese, Basque, French, and Spanish 
fishermen which in the next two centuries visited those 
shores, opening to the Old World a source of revenue 
more available than the fabled wealth of Cathay. 

Still, dreams of the Indies led Cabot on southward, 
past Newfoundland, past Nova Scotia, along the New 
England shores, and probably southward near Cape 
Hatteras, with the hope of finding a direct passage to 
the East. 

Although on their return from their first voyage of 
1497 the Cabots believed that the land they had dis- 
covered was some part of Asia, to them must be given 
the credit of beholding the American continent before 
Columbus; while, with Httle or 110 doubt, Sebastian 
Cabot beheld in July, 1498, the mainland of Labrador, 
for, says Hakluyt, " Columbus first saw the tirme lande, 
August I, 1498." * 

* Kohl, p. 131. foot-note. 



THE PORTUGUESE ON THE LABRADOR COAST. 37 

English seamen, then, were the first to reveal to a 
world which had forgotten the deeds of the Norsemen 
the northeastern shores of our continent, and to carry 
to Europe the news of the wealth of life in the seas of 
Newfoundland and the Bay of St. Lawrence. 

The Cabots were of Italian origin, though Sebastian 
was born in Bristol. The English did not immediately 
follow up their discoveries, for the next explorer who 
ventured near if not within sight of the Labrador coast 
was a Portuguese, Cortereal, who was commissioned by 
Emanuel the Great of Portugal, the same enterprising 
monarch who had previously sent out Vasco de Gama 
on his voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. 

Cortereal sailed from Lisbon in the year 1500. His 
landfall was Newfoundland near Cape Race, or north- 
ward at Conception Bay. From this point he sailed 
northward, and probably discovered Greenland. He 
then came to the mouth of a river called by him " Rio 
nevado," which is supposed to have been near the lati- 
tude of Hudson's Strait. Here he is said to have been 
stopped by ice. He then sailed southward, resting on 
the east coast of Newfoundland before returning to 
Lisbon. 

The next year Cortereal returned to Newfoundland. 
He was unable to reach the northern regions on account 
of the ice, which was more abundant than the year 
before. On his return his vessel and all aboard foun- 
dered, the companion ship reaching Lisbon. The land^ 
Cortereal visited was mapped on a Portuguese chart in 
1504, and was called "Terra de Cortte Reall." Kohl 
claims that " the configuration of the coasts and the 
names written upon them prove that parts of New- 



38 



THK CEOGKAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 



foundland and of our present Labrador are the regions 
intended." 

As yet the knowledge of Labrador was in embryo, 



'^s 




'^i" 












H »- "« S ♦ ii N 




i 






i s t s g ^ s ^ ?? :; 



R 
Wo 

Win 
o 






'1/ >- 
^.b^ 



^'^ 



^ 

D 



o 

.-> ^ 
p I 

o 



EARLY VlSnORS TO THE LABRADOR COAST. 39 

Labrador and Newfoundland being a nebulous mass. 
In a Portuguese map of 1520, nevertheless, we have 
the name of " Lavrador," which, however, was applied to 
Greenland, while the Labrador coast and Newfoundland 
were confounded and given the name " Bacalhaos." 

But yet it is to the Portuguese that we owe the name 
of Labrador. Kohl tells us that "King Emanuel, hav- 
ing heard of the high trees growing in the northern 
countries, and having seen the aborigines, who appeared 
so well qualified for labor, thought he had found a new 
slave-coast like that which he owned in Africa; and 
dreamed of the tall masts which he would cut, and the 
men-of-war which he would build, from the forests of 
the countrv of the Cortereals." 

The word Labrador is a Portuguese and Spanish word 
for laborer. On a photograph of a Mexican field-hand, 
or peon, ploughing in a field, which we lately purchased 
in Mexico, is written " Labrador." In a recent book on 
Cuba the author thus speaks of a wealthy Cuban planter : 
" He is. bv his own account, a Hijo de Labrador (labor- 
er's son ) from Alava, in the Basque Provinces.""" Cor- 
tereal's land was thus the -Maborer's land,'.' whence it 
was hoped slave laborers might be exported to the 
Portuguese colonies. 

The Portuguese also, as is well known, applied to 
Newfoundland the name Bacalhaos, which means dried 
codfish or stockfish. 

As the result of Cortereal's voyage the Portuguese 
fishermen through the rest of the 16th century habitually 
visited the shores and banks of New^foundland, and 
undoubtedly were more or less familiar with the Labra- 

•" A. Gallenga. The Pearl of the Antilles, p. lOO. 1874. 



40 THE CKOGRAl'HICAL EVOLUTION OE LABRADOR. 

dor coast, for Scandinavian authors report their presence 
on the Greenland coast. (Kohl, p. 190.) 

In a foot-note to p. 197 of his " Pioneers of France in 
the New World," Mr. Parkman remarks : " Labrador— 
Labratoj'is l^erra — is so called from the circumstance 
that Cortereal in the year 1500 stole thence a cargo of 
Indians for slaves." , That the " Indians" were captured 
on the Labrador coast, however, appears to be an in- 
exact statement. There were probably then no red 
Indians or timber on the Labrador coast, but Cor- 
tereal must have entrapped them in Newfoundland or 
some place southward. Kohl [p. 169] tells us that 
'' these aborigines, captured according to the custom of 
the explorers of that day, are described, l)y an eye-wit- 
ness who saw them in Lisbon, as tall, well built, and 
admirably fit for labor. We infer from this statement 
that they were not Esquimaux from the coast of Labra- 
dor, but Indians of the Micmac tribe, inhabitants of 
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia." The editor of Kohl's 
work adds a quotation from the Venetian Pasqualigo, 
who says : " His serene majesty contemplates deriving 
great aclvantage from the country not only on account 
of the timber, of which he has occasion, but of the in- 
habitants, who are admirably calculated for labor, and 
are the best slaves 1 have ever seen." 

The path opened by Sebastian Cabot was nut only 
trod bv Portuguese, but the Spanish,"^" Basques, French 
(Bretons and Normans), and English frequented the 
rich fishing-banks of Newfoundland, and with little 

* "The voyage of Estevan Gomez produced in Spain the same effect which 
those of the Cabots, of Cortereal, and of the men from Normandy and Brittany 
had produced in England, Portugal, and France — it conducted the Spaniards to 
she northwestern fisheries." (Henry Hudson, by Ashler. Hakluyt S.-.j. p. xcix.) 



THE VOYAGES OF CAR'I lER. 



41 



doubt visited the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the southern 
coast of Labrador. Their discoveries were perhaps 
recorded in Gastaldi's map. 

Labrador first became clearly differentiated from 
Newfoundland by Jacques Cartier, To him we owe 



^ .^ THAMONTAN^^ 



TERRA DE LABOHADOR 




tlic discovery of the Strait of Belle Isle ; of Belle Isle, 
the Isola -De' Demoni of earlier voyages; of .Chateau 
Bay and other points on the Gulf coast of Labrador. 

Sailing- from St. Malo the 20th of April, 1534, he 

arrived Ma\- loth on the eastern coast of Newfoundland, 

*near Cape Buonavista. From tliis cape Cartier pushed. 

northward until he came to what is now called Fogo 

Island, which was one of the resorts of the a;reat auk, or 



42 THE GEOGRArmCAL EVOLU IION OF LABRADOR. 

" penguin" of the early explorers. But we will let 
Cartier describe the scene which met his eyes in his own 
words translated by Hakluyt from " The first Relation 
of laques Carthier of S. Malo, of the new land called 
New France, newlv discovered in the yere of our Lord 

>534-" 

" Vpon the 21 of May the winde being in the West, 

we hoised saile, and sailed toward North and by East 
frbm the Cape of Buona Vista vmtil we came to the 
Island of Birds, which wasenuironed about with a banke 
of ice but broken and crackt : notwithstanding the sayd 
banke, our two boats went thither to take in some birds, 
whereof there is such plenty, that vnlesse a man did see^ 
them, he would thinke it an incredible thing : for albeit 
the Island (which containeth about a league in circuit) 
be so full of them, that they seeme to have bene brought 
thither, and sowed for the nonce, yet are there an hun- 
dred folde as many hovering about it as within ; some- 
of the which are as big as lays, blacke and white, with 
beaks like vnto crowes : they lie alwayes vpon the sea : 
they cannot Hie verv high, because their wings are so 
little, and no l)igger than halfe ones hand, yet do they 
flie as swiftly as any birds of the aire leuell to the water ; 
they are also exceeding fat ; we named them Aporath. 
In lesse then halfe an houre we filled two boats full of 
them, as if they had bene with stones : so that besides 
them which we did eat fresh, eury ship did powder and 
salt five or sixe barrels full of them. 

" Besides these, there is another kinde of birds which 
houer in the aire, and ouer the sea, lesser then the others ; 
and these doe all gather themselves together in the Isl- 
and, and put themselves vnder the wings of other birds 



THE VOYAGES OF CARTIER. 43 

that are greater : these are named Godetz. There are 
also of. another sort but bigger, and white which bite 
even as dogs : those we named Margaulx. 

*' And albeit the sayd Island be 14 leagues from the 
maine land, notwithstanding beares come swimming 
thither to eat of the sayd birds ; and our men found one 
there as great as anv cow, and as white as any swan, who 
in their presence leapt into the sea ; and vpon Whitsun 
mvnday (following our voyage toward the land) we met 
her by the way, swimming toward land as swiftly as we 
could saile. So soone as we saw her, we pursued her with 
our boats, and by maine strength tooke her, whose flesh 
was as good to be eaten as the flesh of a calfe of two 
yeres olde," 

Cartier then sailed north, entered the Strait of Belle 
Isle, anchoring at Blanc Sablon, still a settlement east 
of Bradore Ba}^, 

" White Sand [Blanc Sablon] is a road in the which 
there is no place guarded from the south, or southeast. 
But towards south-southwest from the saide road there 
are two Hands, one of the which is called Brest Island, 
and the other the Hand of Birds, in which there is great 
store of Godetz, and crows with red beaks and red feete: 
they make their nests in holes vnder the ground euen 
as conies." 

The great French navigator harbored in the ancient 
port of Brest, near these Islands; the *Tland of Birds," 
being the present Parroqueet Island, fifteen miles east- 
ward of the mouth of Esquimaux River. 

Our voyager then coasted along these forbidding- 
shores to St. James River, where he first saw the natives ; 
" they weare their haire tied on the top like a wreath of 



44 I'H^' <-;eo(;kai'I[icai, evolution of Labrador. 

hay ; . . . they paint themselves with certain Roan 
colors ; their boates are made of the barke of birch trees, 
with the which they fish and take great store of scales, 
and as farre as we could vnderstand since our comming 
thither, that is not their habitation, but they come from 
the maine land out of hotter countries, to catch the saide 
seals and other necessaries for their lining." These red 
men must have been the Mountaineer Indians, which 
still come down to the coast from the warmer interior 
each summer to fish for seal. Cartier makes no men- 
tion of the Eskimo, who would undoubtedly have been 
encountered if their roving bands had been livmg on 
the coast from Chateau Bay to the Seven Isles, which he 
so carefully explored. 

This coast appeared to Cartier so disagreeable, , un- 
productive, and barren, that he exclaimed, " It ought to 
be the country which God had given to Cain." So he 
crossed the Strait of Belle Isle, sailed over to Newfound- 
land, coasted that Island to. Cape Anguille, which he 
reached on the 24th of June. From there he sailed over 
to the Magdalen Islands, to the Bird rocks (Isles aux 
Margaulx), thence to Prince Edward's Island, thence to 
Miramichi, afterward to Gaspe Bay, and coasted Anti- 
costi, crossing over again to near and within sight of the 
Mingan Islands. Not on this voyage discovering the 
river St. Lawrence, he finally turned homewards, coast- 
ing along the Labrador shore, touching at Cape Tien- 
not, now called Cape Montjoli. Thence he returned to 
France through the Strait of Belle Isle. 

The next year Cartier returned, sailing again through 
the Strait of Belle Isle ; and, coasting along the southern 
shores of Labrador, discovered the river St. Lawrence. 




45 



46 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 

On his ihird voyage, Cartier entered the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, passing in between Newfoundland 'and Cape 
Breton, thus for the first time demonstrating that New- 
foundland was an island and not a part of the continent. 

The next step in the geographical evolution of Lab- 
rador is seen in Mercator's great map of 1569. Kohl 
tells us that for the compilation of this map Mercator 
had collected many printed and manuscript maps and 
charts, and many reports of voyages of discovery, " But," 
says Kohl, "the best portion of Mercator's work, and a 
real and valuable improvement upon all former maps, is 
his delineation of the large peninsula of Labrador, lying 
southwest of Greenland. On all former maps, that re- 
gion was ill-shapen and most incorrectly drawn. But 
here, under the name of 'Terra Corterealis,' it receives 
its proper shape, with a full and just development, which 
had not been given to it on any map prior to 1569. He 
makes its eastern coast run southeast and northw^est, as it 
really does from about 53° to 60° N. In the north he 
plainly shows the narrow entrance of Hudson's Strait, 
and at the west of it a large gulf, called by him ' Golf am 
de Merosro.' This remarkable gulf may be an indica- 
tion of either Hudson's Bay or only the Bay of Ungava. 
I think that the latter was meant ; first, because the 
'Gulf of Merosro' has the longitude of the mouth of 
the river St. Lawrence, which is also the longitude of 
th(^ Bay of Ungava ; second, because the said gulf is 
represented as closed in the west. The western coast of 
the Bay of Ungava runs high up to the. north, where 
Hudson's Strait is often filled with ice. This may have 
led the unknown discoverers, the informants of Mercator, 
to suppose that it was closed in the west. If they had 



* 



THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 47 

iooked round Cape Wolstenholm into Hudson's Bay, 
they would have perceived a broad bav and open water 
before them. 

" Mercator does not indicate, so far as I know, the 
sources from which he derived these remarkable improve- 
ments for his chart, which were not known by Homem 
in 1558, and of which there are only shght indications 
on the Cabot map of 1544. He adopts the Portuguese 
names for his ' Terra Cortereahs,' namely, ' Golfam de 
Merosro,' ' Y. dus Demonios,' 'Cabo Marco,' ' llha 
•da Fortuna,' ' Baia dus Medaus,' ' Rio de Tornienta,' 
' Ylhas de Caravillo,' ' Baia de Malvas.' etc. Some of 
the names are not new, but had been long known, though 
not always put in the same position. We know of no 
official Portuguese exploring expedition made to these 
regions between the time of Homem (1558) and Merca- 
tor (1569) ; and. therefore the suggestions of Dr. Asher, 
for the solution of this problem, have a high degree of 
probability. He says :"' ' The Portuguese fishermen 
continued their surveys of the northern coasts,' com- 
menced by Gaspar Cortereal in 1500, 'most likely for 
no other purpose than to discover advantageous fisheries. 
They seem to have advanced slowly, step by step, first 
along the shores of Newfoundland, then up to the mouth 
of Hudson's Strait, then through that strait, and at last 
into Hudson's Bay,' or, as I think, into Ungava Bay. 
' With a certain number of ancient maps, ranging from 
1529 to 1570, before us, we can trace this progress step 
by step. In 1544,' the time of Cabot's map, 'the Por- 
tuguese seem not yet to have reached the mouth of the 
strait ; and in 1570,' or, as I think, f569, the date of 

*See G. M. Asher's " Henry Hudson," Introduction, p. xcvi., London, i860. 



48 IHE CKOGHAPHICAL KVOLUTION OF LABRADOR, 

our Mercator's map,* 'they have reached the bay,' 
Hudson's, or at least Ungava Bay. ' We c^an, there- 
fore, state with the greatest certainty that Hudson's 
Bay,' Hudson's Strait as far as Ungava Bay, . . . ' had 
been discovered before the publication of Ortelius's at- 
las, which took place in 1570,' or, better, before the pub- 
lication of Mercatoj's chart, which took })lace in 1569. 
' But we are not equally certain that the discovery falls 
within the years 1558 to 1570,' or. better, 1569, 'because 
we have only the negative evidence of Diego Homem's 
chart to support the latter assertion. The fact itself is, 
however, probable enough.' " 

To the English navigators of the i6th and i/tli cen- 
turies succeeding Cartier we owe the next step in our 
knowledge of the geography of the Labrador peninsula. 

In 1577 Master Martin Frobisher sighted the coast 
of Northern Lab-rador, which he called " Frisland," 
using a word which frequently appears in the early 
charts. The point he first sighted was probably north 
of 58°, for after coasting four days along the coast for 
perhaps a distance of nearly two hundred miles, a voy- 
age of eight days, between the 8th and i6th of July, 
would carry him to Frobisher's Strait, Moreover his 
description of the coast applies well to the northern ex- 
tremity of Labrador beyond Hopedale and Okkak. 

The narrative reads thus : 

" The 4. of July we came within the making of Fris- 
land. From this shoare 10. or 12. leagues, we met 
great Islands of yce, of halfe a mile, some more, some 



* Dr. Asher does not mention Mercator's map of 1569. He had before him 
the map of Ortelius of 1570, who was only a follower and copyist of Mercator, 
but adopted his views.' 



THE PORTUGUESE VOYAGES. 49 

lesse in compasse, shewing above the sea, 30. or 40. 
fathoms, and as we supposed fast on ground, where with 
our lead we could scarce sound the bottom for depth. 

" Here in place of odoriferous and fragrant smels of 
sweete gums, and pleasant notes of musicall birdes, 
which other Countreys in more temperate Zones do 
yeeld, wee tasted the most boisterous Boreal blasts mixt 
with snow and haile, in the moneths of June and luly, 
nothing inferior to our vntemperate winter ; a sudden 
alteration, and especially in a place of Parallele, where 
the Pole is not eleuate aboue 6t. degrees ; at which 
height other Countreys more to the North, yea vnto 70. 
degrees, shew themselues more temperate than this doth. 
All along this coast yce lieth, as a continuall bulwarke, 
and so defendeth the Country, that those that would 
land there, incur great danger. Our Generall 3. days 
together attempted with the ship boate to haue gone on 
shoare, which for that without great danger he could 
not accomplish, he deferred it vntil a more convenient 
time. All along the coast lie very high mountains cou- 
ered with snow, except in such places, where through the 
steepenes of the mountains of force it must needs fall. 
Foure days coasting along this land, we found no signe 
of habitation. Little birds, which we judged to have 
lost the shoare, by reason of thicke fogges which that 
Country is much subiect vnto. came flying into our ships, 
which causeth us. to suppose, that the Country is both 
more tollerable, and also habitable within, than the out- 
ward shoare maketh shew or signification. 

" From hence we departed the eight of luly ; on the 
16. of the same, we came with the making of land, 
which land our Generall the yeere before had named the 



EAST 




L'S2JA 



50 



FROBISHERS VOYAGE. 5 1 

Queenes foreland, being an Island as we iudge, lying 
neere the supposed continent with America ; and on the 
other side, opposite to the same, one other Island called 
Halles Isle, after the name of the Master of the ship, 
neere adiacent to the firm land, supposed Continent with 
Asia." (Page. 57.)* 

In Rundall f we find it stated that " Frobisher, now 
left to himself, altered his course, and stood to the S.W. ; 
and, seventeen days afterwards, other land, judged to be 
Labrador, was sighted in latitude 62° 1' N." (p. 1 1). In 
this latitude, however, lies Meta Incognita. 

"The great cape seen [by John Davis] on the 31st 
was designated, it is stated, Warwick's Foreland ; and 
the southern promontory, across the gulf. Cape Chid- 
LEY.J On this Fox observes: 'Davis and he [Wey- 
mouth, a later navigator] did, I conceive, light Hudson 
into his Streights.' The modern authority before cited 
expresses a similar opinion ; and there is no reason to 
doubt the fact. 

" From Cape Chidley a southerly course was taken to 
seek the two vessels that were expected to be at the 
fishing-ground ; and on the lOth, in latitude 56° 40', they 
\\'didi di frisking gale at west-northwest. On the 12th, 
in about latitude 54° 32', an island w^as fallen in with 
which was named Darcie's Island. Here five deer were 



* " The second voyage of Master Martin Frobisher, 1577, written by Master 
Dionise Settle. Hakluyt, vol. iii., New Edition, London, 1810." 

f Narratives of Voyages towards the Northwest in search of a passage to 
Cathay and India. 1496-1631. By Thomas Rundall, Esq., London, Hakluyt 
Society, 1849, S°> PP- 259. 

X " ' TAe worshippfull M. John Chidley, of Chidley, in the county of Deuon, 
esquire,' was apparently chief promoter of an expedition which sailed Anno 1589, 
for ' the province of Arauco on the coast of Chili, by thestreight of Magellan. 
Of this expedition M. Chidley was also the General. Hakluyt, iv. 357." 



52 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 

seen, and it was hoped some of them might be killed, 
but on a party landing, the whole herd, after being 
twice coursed about the island, ' took the sea and 
swamme towards ilands distant from that three leagues.* 
They swam faster than the boat could be pulled, and so 
escaped. It was represented that one of them ' was as 
bigge as a good prety cowe, and very fat, their feet as 
big as oxe feet.' 

"The 13th, in seeking a harbour, the vessel struck on 
a rock and received a leak ; which, however, was mended 
the following day, in latitude 54°, ' in a storm not very 
outragious at noone.' On the 15th, in latitude 52° 40', 
being disappointed in their expectations of finding the 
Elizabeth and Sunshine, or of finding any token of 
those vessels having been in the vicinity, and there 
being but little wood, with only half a hogshead of fresh 
water on board, it was determined to shape the course 
homeward for England. This was accordingly done, 
and they arrived on the 15th of September in Dart- 
mouth, ' giving thanks to God ' for their safe arrival." 
(Page 49.) 

But it is to Davis, after whom Davis Strait was 
named, that we owe the most exact knowledge of the 
Labrador coast, until modern times. The following 
extracts contain all that we can find regarding his ex- 
ploration of the Labrador coast. 

Davis, in the Moonshine, left Greenland in latitude 
66° 2,2,' Aug. I St, 1586. " She crossed the strait in 
nearly a due westerly direction. The 14th of August 
she was near Cape Walsingham, in latitude 66° 19' on 
the American side. It w^as too late for anything more 
than a summarv search along the coast. The rest of 



WEYMOUTH'S VOYAGE. 53 

the month, and the first days of September, were spent 
in that search. Besides the already known openings, 
namely, Cumberland Strait, Frobisher's Strait, and Hud- 
son's Strait, two more openings were found, Davis s Inlet 
in 56°, and Ivuctoke Inlet in 54° 30'. Davis's men had to 
cross the Atlantic in his miserable craft, and he per- 
formed the voyage through the equinoctial gales in 
little more than three weeks. He reached England 
again in the beginning of October, 1586." (Henry 
Hudson, cxv.) 

Davis was followed by Weymouth in 1602. Accord- 
ing to Rundall : 

" From the 5th to the 14th of July, the navigator 
appears to have been ranging along the coast of Labra- 
dor, where, on the loth, variation 22° 10' W., he saw 
many islands. On the 15th he was in latitude 55° 31', 
variation 17° 15' W.; and the day following saw ' a very 
pleasant low land, all islands,' in latitude N. 55°, varia- 
tion 18° 12' W. On the 17th he entered and sailed up 
an inlet for thirty leagues, in sanguine hope of having 
found the desired passage ; but he was doomed to dis- 
appointment. In this inlet, which has been identified 
with Sleeper's Bay on Davis's Inlet, Weymouth en- 
countered his last peril, and escaped in safety. The fly- 
boats were assailed by a furious storm, which terminated 
in a whirlwind of extreme violence, that rendered them, 
for a while, completely unmanageable ; and though very 
strongly built, they took in so much water, for want of 
spar decks, that they narrowly escaped being swamped. 
As soon as the weather cleared up, the course was 
shaped for England." (Page 68.) 

The Labrador coast was next seen by Master John 



54 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOK. 

Y. 




I*'- 32 iZ-r tyu:}2akJiiyt x-<\->cu-fy 



£dwf-VWln-,I'J^a£- 



VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN KNIGHT. 55 

Knight, who sailed April i8, 1606, from Gravesend in 
the Hopewell. 

" After a most tedious and uninteresting passage, the 
vessel arrived off some broken land, in latitude 56° 25' 
N.: much ice driving to the southward. The wind was 
fresh and the commander made fast to a piece of ice ; 
but falling calm, he endeavored to row in between the 
masses. This was an unfortunate attempt. The weather 
became thick and foggy, and a furious storm arose on 
June 14: they were driven about in the ice. Lost 
sight of land till the 19th, when it is described as being 
seen again, rising like eight islands in latitude 56° 
48' N., variation 25° W. The vessel was then taken 
into a cove, and made fast by hawsers laid out on shore. 
On June 26th, Capt. Knight, his mate, and three hands 
set out, well armed, to explore a large island. They 
disappeared, having probably been killed by the natives. 

" On the night of the 29th, ' they were attacked by 
savages, who set on them furiously with bows and 
arrows ; and at one time succeeded in obtaining posses- 
sion of the shallop. However, the eight mariners, with 
a fierce dog, showed a resolute front, and the assailants, 
upward of fifty in number, were finally driven off. The 
savages are represented to have been ' very little people, 
tawnie colored, thin or no beards, and fiat-nosed.' They 
are also described as being ' man-eaters ; ' but for this 
imputation there appears to be no warrant, except in the 
imagination of the parties on whom the attack was 
made." 

On the 4th of July, the vessel was in great danger of 
foundering, the craft leaking badly. 

" Shaping their course towards Newfoundland, with 



56 THE GEOGKAPHICAI. EVOLU HON OF LABRADOR. 

a strong current in their favour, they made Fogo on the 
23d of July. At that place they were most hospitably 
entertained. Having refitted, they left on the 226. of 
August, full of grateful feelings towards their generous 
friends ; and arrived at Dartmouth on the 24th of 
December." (Pages 75, 76.) 

In 1 6 10 Henry Hudson discovered the strait which 
bears his name, his discoveries being recorded in the 
accompanying map, copied from the volume on Henry 
Hudson published by the Hakluyt Society. 

In the narrative of the Voyage of Szr Thomas But- 
ton (1612-13) we find the following reference to Cape 
Chidley: 

" On this part of the voyage, the following remarks are 
reported, by Fox, to have been made by Abacuk 
Prickett. ' He saith, they came not through the maine 
channell of Fretum Htidson, nor thorow Lumleys Inlet; 
but through into the Mare Hyperborum betwixt those 
Hands first discovered and named Chidley's Cape by 
Captain Davis, and the North part of America, called 
by the Spaniards, who never saw the same, Cape 
Labrador, but it is meet by the N. E. point oi America, 
where was contention among them, some maintaining 
(against others) that them Hands were the Resolution,''' 
etc. (Page 89.) 

Captain Gibbons, in 16 14, appears to have been de- 
tained for some months on the Labrador coast. 

"Of the result of the voyage, all that is known," says 
Asher, "is thus laconically communicated by Master 
Fox : ' Little,' he says, ' is to be writ to any purpose,, 
for that hee was put by the mouth of Fretum Hudson, 
and with the ice driven into a bay called by his company 



GIBBON S VOYAGE. 



57 



Gibbons his Hole, in latitude about 57° upon the 
N. E. part of Stinenia, where he laid twenty weeks fast 
amongst the ice, in danger to have been spoyled, or 
never to have got away, so as the time being lost, hee 
was inforced to returne.' The bay in which Gibbons 
was caught is supposed to have been that now called 
Nain, on the coast of Labrador." (Page 95. Arctic 
Voyages, p. 205.) 



vi. 






il 



'-I- 



1- 



( (THE 

I iGOO 

^1 r-^ 



-LjuxI 
^ Inlet 




■wm 



.C0/ S^iHsifST. LUCIA 
3AC^^^^ '-■-- 



TABULA NAUTICA. 

'lua reprceseiitaiitur orae mari- 
tinuemeatiis acfreta noviter a 
II. HudsOHu Auylo ad caurum 
■■iitpni \oLxiin Fixtiiciam inda- 
ijata Anno iiu-4. 



MAP OF HENRY HUDSON'S DISCOVERIES— HAKLUYT SOCIETY. 

A summary mention of the early voyages we also 
find in the records of the Hakluyt Society : 

" Hudson s Strait had been discovered by Sebastian 
Cabot in 1498. The Portuguese had sailed through it 



58 THE GEOGRAPHICAL EVOLUTION OF LABRADOR. 

and had become acquainted with part of Hudson's Bay 
between 1558 and 1569. In 1577 Frobisher had by 
chance entered the strait. In 1602 Weymouth had 
sailed nearly a hundred leagues into it, from Hatton's 
Headland to the neighborhood of Hope's Advance Bay. 

" The whole east coast of North America, from "^^^ 
north to the mouth of Hudson's Strait, had been sur- 
veyed by Sebastian Cabot in 1498, and part of it before, 
in 1497, by his father and him. Others had rediscov- 
ered various parts. Thus the east of Newfoundland had 
been explored by Cortereal in 1501 ; the south coast, 
by some fishers from Normandy and Brittany in 1504 
and 1508. The mouth of the St. Lawrence had also 
been visited by Cortereal and by these French mariners. 
The river, nearly up to the lakes, and all the surround- 
ing country, had been thoroughly explored by Jacques 
Cartier in 1534 and 1535, and afterwards by Roberval 
and Cartier. 

" The Sandbanks near the mouth of the St. Lawrence, 
and the fishing-stations along the Newfoundland coast, 
were frequented by the English, Portuguese, French, 
and Spaniards." (H. Hudson, Hakluyt Soc. cxliv.) 

After Henry Hudson's voyage, no further explora- 
tions were made of the Labrador coast, so far as we can 
ascertain, until the time of rear-Admiral Bayfield, of the 
British Navy, who, during the years 181 5 to 1827, sur- 
veyed and mapped this coast as well as the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence and Newfoundland. His researches are em- 
bodied in the English Admiralty charts, from which the 
maps of the Labrador peninsula in use up to about 1880 
are copied. Of the advances lately made by British and 
Moravian surveys mention has previously been made. 



LABRADOR A LAND OF MYSTERY. 59 

To most readers the Labrador coast is still a Meta 
Incognita, an Ultima Thule, a land of mystery, shrouded 
by fog and gloom. The ordinary knowledge of it is as 
vague and indefinite as in the times of Cabot. The 
period when accurate charts of this intricate coast with 
its tens of thousands of islands, skiers, and ledges will be 
made, seems far distant. Local pilots and fishermen 
from Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and at times from the 
United States, with an occasional Newfoundland or 
Canadian steamer, ply over regularly beaten routes, but 
owing to the lack of commercial interest in these barren, 
almost deserted shores, the coast will for years still re- 
main well-nigh beyond the pale of modern interests and 
thoughts. 

In time the Indian and Eskimos will be a peopledead 
and forgotten. The Moravian settlements will be aban- 
doned. Already, owing to the decrease in the cod fish- 
ery, famine and want are slowly but surely reducing by 
removal and death the numbers of the lingering white 
population, and the coast will be still more desolate and 
lonely than now. 

And yet this 'coast stands like a protecting, guardian 
wall between the frozen north and the more temperate, 
inhabitable regions south and west. Its unexplored bays 
and rivers will always remain full of interest to our ad- 
venturous yachtsmen, as well as to the naturalist, the 
sportsman, and traveller. 



CHAPTER IV. 

LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

The following recollections of our student days are 
offered with the suggestion that the more adventuresome 
of our college boys of the present day might spend to 
advantage the long summer vacation in cruising on our 
northern coasts, and combine in agreeable proportions 
science and travel. 

In the summer of i860, while a student in Bowdoin 
College, I joined the WiUiams College expedition to 
Labrador and Greenland under the charge of Professor 
P. A. Chadbourne. June 27th found us on board the 
Nautihts, a staunch schooner of about 140 tons, com- 
manded by Capt. Randlett. Soon after five o'clock of 
a bright, fresh morning our vessel cast off from the wharf 
at Thomaston, Me. The Thomaston" band played a 
lively air, a clergyman made a parting address, calling 
down the blessings of Heaven upon the argonauts ; our 
Nestor replied, the students cheering for the citizens of 
Thomaston and the band, and with a favoring northwest 
wind the Natctzhis, gliding down the current of the St. 
George's River, a deep fiord, in a couple of hours reached 
the open sea. 

Our course lay inside of Monhegan, with its high, bold 
sea-wall. Passing on, the Camden Hills recede, and we 

endeavor with the glass to make out the White Moun 

60 



THE NEWFOUNDLAND COAST. 6l 

tains, said by some to have been seen by Weymouth from 
inside of Monhegan. The ocean swell not being con- 
ducive to historical controversy, we turn to watch the 
Mother Carey's chickens and the grampus as well as the 
fin-back whales sporting in the waves. 

By the next morning we had sailed 190 miles from 
Thomaston, past Cape Sable, and our northwest wind 
still attending, we bowl along, through schools of por- 
poise, while two or three whales pass within a few 
fathoms of our vessel, showing their huge whitish backs. 
The next day our seven-knot breeze does not fail us, 
and takes us by the 30th into a region of light winds and 
calms off the Gut of Canso. 

July I St We sail along Cape Breton Island, its red 
shores glistening in the noonday sun and then mantled 
with purple as the sun goes down over Louisbourg. As 
darkness sets in the lights of Sidney appear. The next 
morning's sun rose on Cape Ray, around which we beat, 
passing within a mile of Channels, a fishing-village of 
Newfoundland, behind which rise steep hills clothed 
with " tucking-bush," or dwarf spruce and larch. Cape 
Ray pushes boldly into the sea, its precipitous sides of 
decomposed sandstone furrowed by the rains which pour 
down its scarred cheeks, on which still linger banks of 
the last winter's snows. 

By the next evening we pass Cape St. Georges. The 
4th was celebrated in the Gulf of St. Lawrence amid 
fog and rain. It was succeeded by a twenty-four hours' 
gale, rather severe for the season, which tested the excel- 
lent qualities of the Nautilus as a sea boat. This being 
our first storm at sea was enjoyed more keenly than sim- 
ilar gales in after-years. The sea swept our deck, but 



62 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

only a few drops entered the cabin. The experience 
was novel and interesting ; fortunately we were not sea- 
sick ; the long waves sloped up like far-reaching hills ; 
sea-birds rode on their crests, and the wind, like a swarm 
of furies, tore through our rigging. There were but oc- 
casional glimpses from the companion-way of our dark, 
close cabin, redolent with the stench of the bilge-water. 
The storm abated after sunset, and the morning of the 
6th found us only fifty miles from Caribou Island. 
Towards noon the first iceberg was seen ; others came 
into view, some stranded, others floating on the sea. 

The evening was a glorious one ; after a gorgeous 
sunset, the twilight lasting until after ten o'clock, the 
moon rose upon berg and sea. We were in an arctic 
ocean ; creatures born in the Greenland seas floated past 
our vessel, and while becalmed at night we fished up 
from a depth of sixty or seventy fathoms a basket star- 
fish {Astrophyton agassizii) large enough to cover the 
bottom of a pail. 

The impressions made on our minds the next day as 
we approached the coast and passed in shore, winding 
through the labyrinth of islands fringing the main land, 
are ineffaceable. That and other days in Southern 
Labrador are stamped indelibly on our mind. It was 
passing from the temperate zone into the life and nature 
of the arctic regions. There is a strange commingling 
of life-forms in the Strait of Belle Isle : the flora and 
fauna of the boreal regions struggling, as it were, to dis- 
place the arctic forms established on these shores since 
the ice period, when Labrador was mantled in perennial 
snow and ice, when the great auk, the walrus, and the 
narwhal abounded in the waters of the Gulf of St. Law- 



THE LABRADOR FLORA. 63 

rence, and the Greenland flora, represented by the 
Arenaria grcenlandua, the dwarf cranberry, and the 
curlew-berry or black Empetrum, nestled among the 
snow and ice of the glacier-ridden hills. 

We landed on the morning of July 7th, and I was 
astonished at the richness of the arctic flora which car- 
peted the more level portions of the island. Groves of 
dwarfed alders, over which one could look while sitting 
down, crowded the sides of the valleys, watered by rills 
of pure ice-cold water. The groves of spruce and hack- 
matack were of the same lilliputian height. In the 
glades of these dwarfed forests and scattered over the 
moss-covered rocks and bogs were Cornus canadensis, 
two varieties in flower ; Kalmia glauca was in profusion, 
as attractive a flower as any ; the curlew-berry (^Em- 
petrum nigi'ti7fi), the dwarf cranberry, with other flow- 
ers and grasses characteristic of the arctic and Alpine 
regions. Particularly noticeable were the clumps of 
dwarf willow from six inches to a foot in height, now in 
flower and visited by the arctic humble-bee and other 
wild bees. Other insects of subarctic and arctic types 
were numerous, among them a geometrid moth {^Rheu- 
mapte7'a hastatd), which extends from the Alps and 
snow-fields of Lapland around through Greenland and 
Labrador to the mountain regions of Maine, New 
Hampshire,- northern New York, Colorado, and Alaska. 
The flies, beetles, and other forms had an arctic aspect, 
showing that on the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle 
the insect fauna is largely tinged with circumpolar 
forms. 

On the 7th of July our party of seven men landed, 
lodged in a Sibley tent, and the Nautilus left us for the 



64 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

Greenland seas with the majority of our party. Our 
tent, provisions, and baggage becoming soaked with the 
rain and dampness, two days after, we moved over to 
Caribou Island and built a house of Canada clapboards, 
kindly loaned for the purpose by the Rev. C. C. Car- 
penter, missionary to Southern Labrador, for whom a 
large frame house, sheltering under its roof a chapel, 
study, and living-rooms, was building. 

A Canadian clapboard is twelve inches long and six 
inches wide ; with these and a few joists two of the 
party built a house twelve feet square, which sheltered 
us from the sun and the black flies, and only leaked 
vyhen it stormed, which happened regularly twice a 
week, usually Wednesdays and Sundays. Six berths 
were put up on the north side (the seventh man was 
accommodated in the mission-house) ; a wide board 
placed on two flour-barrels at the west end served as a 
dining and study table, and in the southeast corner a 
little stove, not over fifteen inches square, with a funnel 
whose elbow, projecting out-of-doors, had to be turned 
with every change of wind, was the focus, the modern- 
ized hearthstone, over which hung our Lares and 
Penates, sundry haras and pieces of dried beef, pilces-de- 
resistance of our meals, often alleviated by game and 
fish, clams and scallops or pussels {^Peden magellanicus), 
with entrees of seal and whale flesh. How we college, 
boys cooked and ate, rambled and slept in those seven 
weeks of subarctic life is a- subject of pleasant memory. 
They were days of rare pleasure, of continuous health, 
and formed an experience whose value lasted through 
our future lives. We made hunting, ornithological, 
entomological, botanical, and dredging expeditions in all 



THE LABRADOR FLORA. 65 

directions, by sea and land ; the geology and the flora 
and fauna were explored with zeal, and resulted in the 
discovery of many new forms and the detection of 
Alpine and arctic European species before_ unknown to 
this continent. We investigated the Quaternary for- 
mation, ice marks, drift and fossil shells; procured 
fossils of the Cambrian red sandstone beds, chiefly 
a sponge (a new species of ArchcEocyathus), which 
were scattered along the shore, probably derived from 
the red sandstone strata so well developed at Bradore, 
also visited by some of our party. The results were 
perhaps of some importance to science, but the lessons 
in natural science we learned were of far greater moment 
to ourselves. 

The coast of Labrador is fringed with islands, large 
and small, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Hud- 
son"'s Strait. A sailboat can go with safety from one 
point to the other, and only occasionally will be exposed 
to the ocean swell. These islands are the exact counter- 
part of each other, differing mainly only in size and 
altitude. Caribou Island was two or three miles in 
length, formed of Laurentian gneiss, which had been 
worn and molded by glaciers. Its scenic features re- 
called those of the more rugged portions of the coast of 
Maine, particularly in Penobscot Bay and Mt. Desert. 
The higher portion of the island is of bare rounded 
rock, with deep valleys or fissures down which run little 
rills ; these valleys are dense with ferns, shelter many 
insects, and where they widen out into the lower land 
support a growth of dwarf spruce, hackmatack and wil- 
low. In the more protected parts a few poplars and 
mountain-ash rise to a height of from ten to fifteen feet. 



66 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

The Alpine vegetation is mostly confined to the exposed 
boggy places or moors, in which are pools of water, 
supporting water-boatmen, case-worms, aquatic beetles 
and numerous water-fleas, and an occasional hair-worm 
or Gordius. 

Along the lower portions by the shores are patches 
of salt marsh with shallow pools of water, which in the 
spring and autumn are undoubtedly frequented by ducks 
and geese, though only a few of the former were to be 
seen. Indeed, I was surprised to see so few sea-fowl. 
They were principally the parroquet, which abounded on 
the sea a mile or two away from shore. A favorite 
breeding-place of this most interesting of arctic birds 
was in the soft red Cambrian sandstone of Bradore, an 
island Iving fifteen miles easterly from Caribou Island. 
With their powerful parrot-like beaks they excavate the 
crumbling rock, extending their galleries in to the dis- 
tance of several feet. Three of our party made an ex- 
pedition to this well-known breeding-resort, and in 
thrusting their hands into the burrows received an occa- 
sional bite from the sharp strong bills of the birds which 
was not soon forgotten. Ducks were occasionally seen, 
the eider-duck and also the coot, as well as the loon, 
both the northern diver and the red-necked loon. Shore- 
birds, particularly the ring-necked plover, and others of 
its family, abounded, while the most familiar bird was a 
white-headed sparrow which nested near our camp. 

It was not yet the time for the curlews. About the 
middle of July the sheldrake and coot, which breed in 
the inland ponds, lead out their young and appear in 
ereat numbers. The old ones are wary and hard to 
shoot, but the young will then be in fine condition. At 



MOUNTAINEER INDIANS. 6/ 

this time the " 'longshoremen" abandon their diet of 
salt pork, bread and molasses, and feast on game, for 
then, we were assured, they have "great plenty fowl." 

In August, also, one or two families of the red Indians 
or Mountaineers of the interior come down to the mouth 
of the Esquimaux, or ** Hawskimaw" River, as it is pro- 
nounced by the settlers, to hunt seal, especially the 
young, and ducks as well as curlew. These Indians are 
entirely governed in their wandering by the situation of 
the deer and other game. One may travel a hundred 
miles up the Esquimaux River without meeting them. 

I saw but a single Esquimau man at Caribou Island. 
His low stature, his prominent, angular cheek-bones, 
pentagonal face, and straight black hair sufficiently char- 
acterized his stock. The only other native Esquimau 
was the wife of an Englishman, John Goddard, the 
" King of Labrador," who lived on a point of land three 
miles west of Caribou Island. She was a famous hunter, 
would go out in a boat, shoot a seal and dress it, making 
boots and moccasins from the skin. Whether these 
Esquimaux had strayed down from the north or, as I 
suspect, were the remnants of their people who may 
have inhabited the entire coast from the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to the arctic regions, deserves further investi- 
gation. 

Few mammals were to be seen. The deer and cari- 
bou were confined to the mainland. On our island was 
a white fox, or rather a blue one, for his summer pelage 
was of a slate-color. His burrow was situated in a hill- 
side behind our house. He would prowl about our 
camp at night, and he might have known that it was un- 
safe to come within reach of our guns. His skin un- 



68 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN EABRADOU. 

doubtedly adorns the museum of the Lyceum of Nat- 
ural History of Williams College. 

A weasel also visited our camp. The otter frequents 
the brooks at the head of Salmon and Esquimaux rivers. 
In winter they rarely come outside, i.e., to the coast. 

It is well known that in Newfoundland the bears, 
especially those living near shore, will eat fish, their diet 
being mixed, and such bears are more savage than those 
in the interior, which live chiefly on berries and ants. 
While on Caribou Island a fisherman living a mile and 
a half from us had his sea-trout nets invaded by two old 
bears accompanied by a young one ; at low water they 
would walk out to the nets, tearing them apart in order 
to eat the fish. 

We were told that a Mr. Hay ward, an Englishman 
who lives at a distance of two miles across the bay, had 
about ten years since shot the last polar-bear seen on this 
coast. 

Speaking of trout, th6re are two kinds : one living in 
the brooks and lakes, the other the sea-trout, a handsome 
fish about twelve inches in length, whose food we found 
consisted of a surface-swimming marine shrimp, the 
Mysis oculata, which lives in immense shoals. The sea- 
trout is taken in nets, and so far as we experimented do 
not, in salt water, rise to the fly. 

Although it was now the 15th of July, the warmer 
summer weather had not yet come, we were told by the 
people on shore. There is, however, scarcely any spring 
in Labrador. The rivers open and the snow disappears 
by the loth of June as a rule, and then the short summer 
is at once ushered in. 

Potatoes, and especially turnips, are raised without 



LABRADOR BUTTERFLIES. 69 

much difficulty as far north as Caribou Island. Rhu- 
barb is said to do well farther up the coast towards the 
Mecatina Islands'. Among the wild-flowers blooming 
in the middle of July were the dandelion and Potentilla 
anserina. Another Potentilla was the P. iridentata, 
the mountain trident, with its three-toothed leaf and 
modest white flower. It was pleasant to see this flower, 
so familiar from my earliest childhood, as it flourishes 
on the plains of Brunswick, Me., and is common on 
Mt. Washington as well as on the mountains of Maine, 
and abounds on the bare spots about Moosehead Lake, 
particularly at the foot of Mt. Kineo. The wild cur- 
rant, strawberry, and raspberry were in flower ; the straw- 
berry plants were luxuriant, sometimes eight inches in 
height, but the raspberries were dwarfed, not exceeding 
the strawberry in height. Up the rivers the raspberries 
and blackberries are abundant, but the latter low and 
dwarfish. 

The shad bush ( Avtelaiickzer canadensis^ was now in 
flower,. blossoming in southern New England in April 
or early May, while Rubus chamcBtnorus, the cloud-berry, 
so abundant in Greenland and Arctic America as well as 
on the fields of Norway and Sweden, and the "tundras" 
of Siberia, was going out of flower. With it were asso- 
ciated the star-flower, Trientalzs arnericana, sl few Ch'n- 
tonia borealis, Smilacina bifoliata and probably S. stellata, 
Streptopus amplexifolia ; one or two species of Andro- 
meda ; an Iris, species of Vaccinium, the Ai^ctostapkylus 
uva-ursi or bear-berry ; the shore-pea, a honeysuckle 
{Lonzcera coerzded), a Viburnum, and also the buckbean 
{Menyanthes trifolzata). 

Among the flowers fluttered the white butterfly 



70 



LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 



{Pieris frigidd), a Colias labrador exists, Argynnis tricla- 
reV, and some geometrid moths, while a few owlet moths 
flew out of the grass at the late twilight, which now 
lasted until near eleven o'clock at night, when fine print 
could be read. 

We were told that the average temperature in June 
here is 48°, that of July 56°. In the warmer days of 
summer the thermometer rises from 64° to 68°, rarely to 
70°. July 17th was one of the warmest and most pleas- 
ant days of the month; the temperature was 60° F. The 
2ist, however, was much warmer, the thermometer 
being 72° F. " 

July i8th was the day of the eclipse; the sun was ob- 
scured in the forenoon ; the light of day was much modi- 
fied, though not approaching twilight. The steamer 
which we saw on the day of the storm in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence was without doubt that which bore the Coast 

Survey eclipse party to Cape 
Chidley, where the eclipse was 
total. 

After roaming over the island 
and making pretty full collections 
of the insects, we paid attention 
to the marine zoology. Shore 
collecting is not as remunerative 
in Labrador as on the Maine and 
Massachusetts coasts. The most 
noticeable form is the six-rayed 
starfish {Aster acanthion polaris) , 
which sometimes measured 
twenty inches from tip to tip of 
its opposing rays ; its color was a dirty yellowish white. 




PELICAN S FOOT SHELL. 



MARINE LIFE. 7 1 

not red as in the common five-finger, also abundant. 
The polar star-fish is common in Greenland, and is a 
truly arctic form. 

The common crab {Cancer iri^ora^d) iiequently oc- 
curred under stones, but the lobster was neither seen nor 
heard of ; though common on the southern shores of 
Newfoundland it does not reach north into the Strait of 
Belle Isle. Among the worms which occurred at low- 
water mark was the Pectinaria. On the New England 
coast it only occurs in deep water below tide mark. 

Dredgings were first made at the mouth of Salmon 
River, a few rods from shore, in some eight fathoms of 
water in a firm deep mud. The most characteristic 
shells were gigantic Aphrodite groenlandica, large -cock- 
les {Cardium islandicuni), as well as the pelican's foot 
{Aporrhais occidentalis), which occurred of good size 
and in profusion. In the soft mud occurred multitudes 
of the neat little sand star {Ophioglypha nodosa). An- 
other form dredged on rocky bottom was Cynthia pyr i- 
f or mis, or the sea peach, and large specimens were cast 
up by the waves on the beach. Every spare day was 
given to dredging, and having been deeply interested in 
marine zoology by the writings of Gosse, in England, 
and of Stimpson in this country, and having obtained a 
good idea of the local marine fauna of Casco Bay, in 
Maine, it was with no little interest and expectation 
that we dropped the dredge in arctic waters, and we 
were not a little delighted with the result of finding so 
near shore and in such shallow water, forms which off 
the coast of Maine, in deep water, were rare and usually 
but half grown. 

July 25th a party of us rowed up Salmon Bay and 



72 LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTliEKN LAbRADOR. 

went a mile up the river. The tide was out and \vc 
looked for the fresh-water mussel (^A lasmodon arcuata), 
which is our northernmost species, and inhabits the 
rivers of southern Newfoundland. We could find 
none, although the settlers told us that mussels, clams, 
and " oysters " were common enough in the river. But 
something better was discovered. We found traces of 
genuine Quaternary marine sands and clays containing 
fossils. There were several banks of sand and clay along 
the edges of the river. In the latter I found Aphrodite 
groenlandica and Aporrhais occidentalism with Buccinu^n 
undattcm. They had been washed out of the clay into 
the bed of the river, and were collected at low-water. 
I also dug several inches into the clay bank and found 
the disintegrated shells of the Aphrodite, so as to leave 
no doubt but that the shells were fossils. Down at the 
mouth of the stream at the head of the bay, on the flats, I 
found SQVtYdX Buccinum tindatum, and quite a number of 
Aporrhais, young and old, broken and entire. On each 
side of the river was a terrace of sand and clay, with a 
thick growth of alders and willows, with the fire-weed 
{Epilobium angusti/olium), the golden-rod and a large 
cruciferous plant common in the mountainous parts of 
New England ; also Comartcm palustre, and a Thalic- 
trum. Farther back and mostly lining the banks was 
a dense growth, impossible to penetrate save occasion- 
ally where there was a break in the thicket of spruce 
and birch, perhaps Betula. populifolia. Still farther up 
and away back stretched the bare moss-covered hill- 
tops, the summer-resort of deer and caribou. Here we 
saw a ptarmigan. But this was one of our halcyon 
days, of which there were few, as the last two weeks of 



UP THE ESQUIMAUX KIVEK. 73 

July were stormy and wet. The clear fair-weather winds 
were from the southwest ; the southeast winds brought 
in the fog and rain, while the northerly winds brought 
a few curlew, the advance-guard of the hosts which were 
to arrive early in August. 

The 3d of August was a fine day. A party of us 
went up the Esquimaux River to Mrs. Chevalier's, whose 
husband, now dead, entertained Audubon when visiting 
this coast. The sail up the river was a pleasant one. 
It was about three miles from its mouth to an expansion 
of the river on whose shores were four or five winter 
houses. Although most of the settlers live on the coast 
through the year, some have their winter and summer 
houses. Those who live up the interior, sometimes a 
distance of seventy miles from the coast, where there is 
wood and game, move from the shore about the 20th of 
October. They spend a month in cutting wood, a fam- 
ily burning through the winter about thirty cords. 
Then succeeds a month of hunting and trapping. The 
snow does not come, we were told, until the last of De- 
cember, although we should judge this to be an extreme 
statement, and the snow is not usually more than three 
feet deep. The people profess to like the winter better 
than the summer. They shoot deer, foxes, etc., black 
fox being sometimes secured, whose skin is worth be- 
tween two and three hundred dollars. Grouse are 
abundant, a good hunter securing from sixty to seventy 
a day in favorable seasons. At any rate fresh meat is 
obtained for each family two or three times a week. 

The houses are small, built of wood, boarded and 
shingled, seldom constructed of logs, and are heated by 
peculiar stoves, great square structures resembling Dutch 



74 I-IFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

Stoves, and heating the whole house, the two living- 
rooms opening into each other,, the stove being placed 
partly in each, the partition between the two rooms be- 
ing cut away to admit the stove. 

The French residents at the Mecatina Islands, more 
social and gayer than the phlegmatic English settlers 
about the mouth of the Esquimaux and Salmon rivers, 
spend the winter evening in dancing and other gayeties 
to which the Anglo-Saxon, in Labrador at least, is a 
comparative stranger. 

The Esquimaux River at its eastern entrance is but a 
few rods wide. Passing Esquimaux Island we sailed out 
into a broad bay or expansion of the river, with ravines 
leading down to it, and under the steep bank protected 
from the northerly winds were the winter houses pre- 
viously described. Up the river, just beyond Mrs. Chev- 
alier's, the river contracted into narrows with rapids ; it 
then opened into another bay or expansion two miles 
wide, the river being a succession of lakes connected by 
rapids, and this is typical of the rivers and streams of the 
Labrador peninsula. A barge cannot sail up the Esqui- 
maux River more than fifteen miles, although one can 
push farther on in a flat boat. We were told that the 
river is about two hundred miles in length, and although 
perhaps the largest in Labrador it has never been ex- 
plored. 

Here we met the black flies in full force, and al- 
though we had been fearfully annoyed by them in ram- 
bling over Caribou Island, here they were astounding, 
both for numbers and voracity. The black fly lives dur- 
ing its early stages in running water. The insect finds 
nowhere in the world such favorable conditions for its 



UP THE ESQUIMAUX RIVER. 75 

increase as in Labrador, over a third of whose surface is 
given up to ponds and streams. The insides of the win- 
dows of Mrs. Chevalier's house swarmed with these 
fiends, the children's faces and necks were exanthema- 
tous with their bites ; the very dogs, great shaggy New- 
foundlanders, would run howling into the water and lie 
down out of their reach, only their noses above the sur- 
face. The armies of black flies were supported by light 
brigades of mosquitoes. No wonder that these entomo- 
logical pests are a perfect barrier to inland travel ; that 
few people live during summer away from the sweep of 
the high winds and dwell on the exposed shores of the 
coast to escape these torments. They are effectual es- 
toppels to inland exploration and settlement. 

Accepting our hostess's kind invitation to take dinner, 
we sat down to a characteristic Labrador midday meal 
of dough balls swimming in a deep pot of grease with 
lumps of salt pork, without even potatoes or any des- 
sert ; nor did there seem to be any fresh fish. The sta- 
ples are bread and salt pork ; the luxuries game and 
fish ; the delicacies an occasional mess of potatoes, 
brought dowai the St. Lawrence once a year in Fortin's 
trading schooner. 

Over the mantelpiece was a stuffed Canada grouse or 
partridge and a ptarmigan in its winter plumage ; but I 
was most delighted with the gift of some Quaternary 
fossils with which Mrs. Chevalier kindly presented me, 
including large specimens of Cardita borealis, Apoi-- 
rhais occidentalis and, most valuable of all, the valves of 
a brachiopod shell, which I had also dredged on the 
coast in ten fathoms, the Hypothyris psittacea. On our 
return down the river we fished up the valves of the 



y6 J, IKE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LAKKADOR. 

Pecten magellanicus, the great scallop shell, which lives 
in five or six feet of water. . This mollusc, which is lo- 
cally known in Labrador by the name of "pussel," we 
afterwards obtained in quantity, fried it in butter and 
meal, finding it to be delicious eating, combining the 
properties of the clam and oyster, the single large ad- 
ductor muscle being far more tender than that of the 
common scallop of southern New England and New 
York. 

With our man, James Mosier, and his sailboat we 
spent two days in dredging in from forty to fifty fathoms 
out in the Strait of Belle Isle, three or four miles from 
land. The collection was a valuable one, containing 
some new species. The crown of the bank which we 
raked with our poorly constructed dredge was packed 
with starfish, polyzoans (including a coral-like form, or 
myriozoum), ascidians, shells, worms, and Crustacea. The 
collection was purely arctic, and had not the only dredge 
I had become broken, we should have reaped, or rather 
dredged, a rich harvest. As it was, the novelties were 
quite numerous, and the interest and excitement, as well 
as labor, of overhauling, sorting, and preserving what we 
did obtain lasted for several days. 

The only plant besides stony vegetable growths called 
"nullipores" dredged at this depth was a delicate red 
sea-weed, the Ptilota elegans, which was found after- 
wards to extend as far down in depth as ninety fathoms. 
Those who glibly talk, on terra firnta, of plant life as 
affording a basis for animal life, should dredge in deep 
water. They will find that a vast population of animals 
of all sorts and conditions in the scale of life is spread 
at all depths over the sea-bottom, thriving almost with- 



DREDGING IN THE STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE. 



17 



out exception on one another — on animal protoplasm — 
and in the beginning of creation animal life was without 
doubt contemporaneous in appearance with vegetable 
existence. Indeed, what is the difference in form and 
structure between a bacterium and a moner ? The two 
worlds of plant and animal life arise from the same base, 
a common foundation of simplest structure, showing 




A Bkanching Polyzoon. Myrlozoiiiii subgracilc. (Natural size.) 

none of the distinctive characteristics of animal or plant 
life, and only barely earning the right to be called or- 
ganisms, that vague term we apply for convenience to 
any, even the simplest structures endowed with life. 

Of all the pleasures of a naturalist's existence, dredg- 
ing has been, to our mind, the most intense. The severe 
exertion, the swimming brain, the qualms of sea-sick- 
ness, tired arms and a broken back, the memory of all 
these fade away at the sight of the new world of life, or 
at least the samples of such a world, which lie wriggling 
and sprawling on the deck of the sailboat, or sink out of 
sight in the mud and ooze of the dredge, to be brought 



78 LIKE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

to light by vigorous dashes of water drawn in over the 
side of the boat. Those days of dredging on the Lab- 
rador coast, where there was such an abundance and 
luxuriance of arctic varieties, were days never to be for- 
gotten. There is a nameless charm, to our mind, in 
everything pertaining to the far north, the arctic world, 
and we can easily appreciate the fascination which leads 
one back again to the polar regions, even if hunger and 
frost had once threatened life. Arctic exploration has 
but begun, and though its victims will yet be numbered 
by the score, enthusiasts will still attempt the dangers of 
arctic navigation, and fresh trophies will yet be won. 

Early in August, during the few still clear nights suc- 
ceeding bright and pleasant days, we had auroras of 
wondrous beauty, not excelled by any depicted by arctic 
voyagers. 

On the loth of August the curlews appeared in great 
numbers. On that day we saw a flock which may have 
been a mile long and nearly as broad ; there must have 
been in that flock four or five thousand ! The sum total 
of their notes sounded at times like the wind whistling 
through the ropes of a thousand-ton vessel ; at others 
the sound seemed like the jingling of multitudes of sleigh- 
bells. The flock soon after appearing would subdivide 
into squadrons and smaller assemblies, scattering over 
the island and feeding on the curlew-berries now ripe. 
The small plover-like birds also appeared in flocks. The 
cloud-berry was now ripe and supplied dainty tid-bits to 
these birds. 

By the i8th of the month the golden rods were in 
flower. Here, as has been noticed in arctic regions, few 
bees and wasps visit the flowers ; the great majority of 



LABRADOR FOSSILS/ 79 

insect visitors are flies (Muscidae), especially the flesh fly 
and allied forms. A bumble-bee occasionally presents 
himself, more rarely a wasp, with an occasional ichneu- 
mon fly, but the two-winged flies, and those of not 
many species, were constant visitors to the August 
flowers. The black flies still remained to this date terri- 
ble scourges in calm weather, though in cloudy days and 
at night they mostly disappeared. 

Wandering through the fog and drizzle along the mud 
flats on the northern side of the island I picked up 
Aporrhais occidental-is, Fusms tornatus, Cardita borealis, 
large valves of Saxicava rugosa, Buccinum and Astarte 
sulcata 2ind compressa ; these diud Pecten islandicus diXiA 
other shells forming much the same assemblage as I had 
dredged a few days previous out in the straits in fifty 
fathoms. The only recent shells lying about were shal- 
low-water forms, such as the common clam, Tellina 
fusca and the razor shell. It was evident that here was 
a raised sea-bottom, and the Quaternary formation. In 
the afternoon I returned to the spot and dug up many 
more shells mingled with pieces of a yellow limestone 
containing Silurian fossils, brachiopods, and corals. This 
horizon, then, represented a deep sea-bottom, over which 
the open sea must have stood at least 300 feet, while the 
clay fossils of the mouth of the Esquimaux River must 
have lived in a deep muddy bay sheltered from the waves 
and currents of the open sea. The drift deposits of La- 
brador are scanty in extent compared with those of the 
Maine coast. They are but isolated patches compared 
with the extensive beds of sand and clay which compose 
the Quaternary deposits of New England. 

On the 2 2d August we made our last excursion up 



8o • LIFE AND NATURE IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

the Esquimaux River, going up some six miles from its 
mouth. From a hill-top I could look over the surface 
of this lake-dotted land. The surface was rugged and 
bare in the extreme. The river valley, however, was 
well wooded, the spruce and birch perhaps thirty feet in 
height. Here and there the river passed through high 
precipitous banks of sand. The hills were rough, scarred 
with ravines, precipices, and deep gaps, the syenite 
wearing into irregularly hummocky hills, the rough 
places not filled up with drift, and thus the contours 
tamed down as in New England. Indeed, Labrador at 
the present day is like New England at the close of the 
ice period or at the beginning of the epoch of great riv- 
ers, before the terraces were laid down and the country 
adapted for man's residence. Labrador was never 
adapted for any except scattered nomad tribes. It is 
still an unfinished land. 

While the hills were bare and the rocks covered with 
the reindeer moss, here and there by the river's edge in 
favorable, protected places were tall alders and willows, 
with groups of asters and golden rods. Here I saw a 
veritable toad, and glad enough was I to recognize his 
lineaments. I was also told that there were frogs in ex- 
istence, though we never saw or heard them. There are 
no snakes or lizards, so that our history of these animals 
in Labrador will be as brief as that of the Irish historian, 
but we did find a small salamander at Belles Amours in 
a later trip to this coast. 

On our return we found that a whaler had towed a 
whale into the mouth of the river and was about to try 
out the oil. We secured a piece of the flesh, and on 
reaching camp boiled it; it was not bad eating, tasting 



THE RETURN HOME. 8l 

like coarse beef. Seal's flippers we also found not to be 
distasteful, though never to be regarded as a delicacy. 

Dredging and collecting insects on fine days when not 
too calm filled up the measure of our seven weeks. The 
time passed rapidly, the days were too short for all the 
work we planned to do, and it was not without regret 
that we left the rugged untamed shores of " the Labra- 
dor." On the afternoon of the very day she had set for 
her return to Caribou Island, the Nautilus hove in sight. 
As she made our harbor she struck upon a sunken rock, 
tore off a piece of her keel, but slid, off and came to an- 
chor as near as practicable to the mission house, and 
then succeeded the mutual spinning of Labrador and 
Greenland yarns by the reunited party. 



CHAPTER V. 

ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

Four o'clock Saturday morning, July 7th, i860, in 
the Strait of Belle Isle, and that huge rampart of rock, 
these few icebergs stranded here and there, this occa- 
sional lump of floe-ice floating down with the tide, these 
outlandish puflins, and large flocks of eider-ducks skim- 
ming the surface or flying high overheard, tell us that, 
after nine days of sailing, we are sighting the Labrador 
coast. 

Here codfish grow largest and most .numerous; so 
twenty thousand fishermen from the British colonies and 
about five thousand Yankees migrate hither every sum- 
mer for the cod, herring, and salmon that swarm in 
these icy waters. Here, in the spring of the year, num- 
bers of hardy Newfoundland sealers risk their lives in the 
ice just breaking up ; while all the year round there are 
estimated to be five thousand Esquimaux, Micmacs, 
Englishmen, Frenchmen, Jerseymen, and half-breeds, 
who live, thanks to the codfish, on these favored shores. 
Here people are born, live, and die, who have never 
seen a horse, cow, sheep, or cat, or a civilized dog. 
Wild Esquimaux dogs, savage, wolfish creatures, are the 
only beasts of burden. 

The animals and birds are half arctic and half temper- 
ate. Sweet, dwarfish, arctic flowers here nestle in beds 

of reindeer-moss, while our Alpine flora one may gather 

82 



APPROACHING THE COAST. 83 

on Mount Washington luxuriates with stunted growths 
of bushy firs and birches. So, nearly all the shells, 
worms, and creeping things are the same in kind and 
number as those that Otho Fabricius wrote of in his 
" Fauna Gronlandica," during his dreary life in southern 
Greenland one hundred years ago. 

As we approach land no capes run out to greet us, or 
sheltered harbor opens its arms to embrace. An unin- 
terrupted line of coast confronts the gulf. In one place 
alone is the intense monotony of the outline relieved by 
the Hills of Bradore, where the coast sweeps round fif- 
teen miles to the eastward, and the Strait widens out. 

It is a charming morning, the sun up but an hour, and 
just breeze enough to move us over the placid sea. 
Flocks of grave, enormous-hook-billed puffins sweep by 
us in squadrons of fifties and hundreds, or flocks of eider- 
ducks fly swiftly out from the land. Coming up nearer 
to this strange coast, the line breaks here and there ; a 
few rocks and islands start out from the shore. We pass 
by schools of two-masted fishing-boats, with two men 
apiece hooking codfish ; we hail the fellows, but they 
are too busy to look up. Things look a little more live- 
ly ; more islands appear, channels wind through them, 
choked with fleets of fishing-smacks. But the wind 
leaves us, so we put out a boat and are towed through 
these narrow passages, whose walls of rock rise on each 
side higher than the masts of our schooner, though not 
very precipitously, for all has been worn down and sub- 
dued by water. So we move along, as if on a smooth- 
flowing, deep, narrow river, or a Norwegian fiord ; now 
we round a point, and can almost jump ashore ; then a 
bend in the channel takes us over to the other side ; now 



84 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

we luff a little to avoid a group of Nova Scotia fisher- 
men, fat, sleek, moon-faced fellows, whose boats, loaded 
with fish, are busy discharging their burden, pitching up 
on deck half-dead cod, which are seized in a trice by 
groups of "headers," "splitters," and "gutters." And 
then the multitudinous smells, now coming _ fierce and 
strong from deck and hold, anon gentle and spicy as the 
cook turns the morning fry. Now the surface is 
streaked with oily films, but these break away and dis- 
close, six or eight fathoms below, a clear, sandy bottom, 
strewed with fish offal, on which banks of sea-urchins 
feed. If we look long and steadily enough, we shall see 
swarms of beautiful, delicate, transparent jelly-fish, with 
an occasional Clio, a winged mollusk, fully as pure and 
beautiful, only more transparent. Suddenly the bottom 
is obscured by an immense shoal of caplin, slowly swim- 
ming just above the bottom. The rocks now reveal 
green, sunny declivities ; little valleys, sprinkled with 
flowers ; an arctic butterfly comes out to our vessel ; and 
now we open upon a house ; it is only a deserted fish- 
house, but a cur, keeping up an incessant barking on the 
other side of the hill, lets us know that there are human 
beings, as well as canine, not far off. If we may believe 
it, there is a small, stunted, homely, Quebec cow feeding 
on the side of the hill. Here was a clear case of unnat- 
ural selection. The scenic features of this coast do not 
demand a cow to grace the foreground. Her nautical 
owner informs us, in sturdy Labradorian dialect, that 
she had been brought up this spring. " I made her fast 
to her moorings, and there let her bide to eat the grass." 
Her husband had broken loose from his moorings, and 
was emulating the roar of the waves on the " land-wash." 



CARIBOU ISLAND. 85 

The children, more used to seals, and sea-cows, had not 
yet recovered from their astonishment at this freak of 
Nature. • 

The channel now widens out into the*bay of Bonne 
Esperance, a fine open space of water, tolerably well 
sheltered from storms. Two days after I got settled on 
Caribou Island, in Salmon Bay, three miles east of 
Bonne Esperance. 

Nearly the whole coast of Labrador is lined with mul- 
titudes of small islands, separated by deep, narrow chan- 
nels from the mainland, with here and there a bay of 
some extent, where the islands are separated far apart. 
Thus, a small sail-boat can start from the mouth of the 
St. Lawrence, and take an inside passage up to the 
Strait of Belle Isle, and there will only be a few places 
where she will encounter the outside swell. These num- 
berless islets and channels are too numerous and intricate 
to be accurately mapped. At least, our ordinary charts 
give no accurate idea of their location, and navigation 
for the whole coast is a matter of guess-work. 

Caribou Island is the largest within fifty miles, per- 
haps, of Salmon Bay. It is about two miles long and 
half as broad. But it is in vain to guess about the length 
or breadth of any part of this rough-and-tumble country, 
so I will measure it with my legs. It is a fresh, cool, 
breezy morning ; thermometer, say, at 56°. At noon it 
will not be higher than 65°. 

At the outset, it may as well be said that this is no 
country for slippers or calfskin boots of ordinary make. 
Here Jersey cowhide or native-made sealskin boots are 
the mode. With anything on but these, two minutes' 
walk out-doors will wet one's feet thoroughly, so wet 



86 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

and soaked is the boggy ground. For bog-trotting, or 
moss-tramping, or climbing rocks, sealskins a la Esqui- 
maux, so light and water-tight, are indispensable. 

The way lies round the head of a little bay, which 
meets a quiet vale, filled with grass and ferns at the top^ 
but half-way down, as it widens out, choked with a 
stunted spruce and fir growth, or what the people call 
"tucking," or " tuckermel-bush." It is in vain that we 
try to push through it, so dense the growth, so gnarled, 
twisted, and grown together in one impenetrable m.ass 
the trunks, and so flat and table-like the branches spread 
out above. Here is a perfectly tight shelter, should it 
rain. Many a hunter, belated at nightfall, has crept 
under these bushes and made a comfortable night of it. 
So the bears find good hiding-places here, and cannot be 
found without dogs to scent them out. Lower down, 
the valley extends into an alder-swamp, a lilliputian 
growth, perhaps three feet high, choked with rank grasses 
and sedges, crowding the sides of a slow-moving brook. 
Here mosquitoes and black-flies swarm ; we are under 
shelter of a cliff, and there is no wind to keep off these 
horrible pests. How they rage and torment, these myr- 
iad entomological furies ! Now for a frantic rush out 
of this purgatory, and a tiresome climb of a hundred 
feet up this cliff ! It is high, but not very rough, for all 
the rocks are hidden by soft reindeer-moss, and the crev- 
ices are filled up with tuckermel, and the ravines that 
run down its sides have their dripping, mossy walls 
sprinkled over with Alpine flowers and their bottoms 
carpeted with coarse arctic grasses. Only here and there 
patches of the original granite show themselves. Now 
and then a brown or yellow butterfly flits by, or an arc- 



SALMON BAY, 87 

tic bumble-bee hums and buzzes in the flowers ; two 
or three beetles crawl over the fern-leaves, while a few 
meagre, lean-looking flies lead a sort of doubtful exist- 
ence. There is none of that outburst and profusion of 
insect-life that characterizes woodland life in the States 
in midsummer. For the benefit of the entomologically 
curious, I will state that nowhere on the coast, or inland, 
at least within twenty miles of Salmon Bay, has a grass- 
hopper been seen or heard of ! The common red-legged 
grasshopper, that is so abundant everywhere with us all 
the summer, which luxuriates on the summit of Mount 
Washington, and is found by arctic travellers about Mel- 
bourne Island, spread, in fact, all through British and 
Arctic America, is here wanting, so scanty and parsimo- 
nious is the distribution of insect-life on these shores. 
But I must mention the wasp's nest I stumbled upon 
one day, about as large as one of Heenan's fists, stuck 
down under the moss, in a mass of roots. Well aware 
of the notorious temper of these insects, and fully con- 
scious of past sad experiences, I approached the dread 
precincts, extended a six-foot pole, and gave a gentle 
tap — no answer ; another — two individuals crawl out — a 
simultaneous rush of the invader to the rear ; the " com- 
bat deepens" — four more dabs with the six-footer — a 
baker's dozen issue forth and fly around, alas ! how dolo- 
rous and sad ! They give chase for a pace or two, and 
then pause, look back irresolutely, and give it up. Such 
was my experience with Labrador wasps. 

By this time we have topped the cliff, and far down 
below lies Salmon Bay. Seven fishermen from New- 
buryport find here one of the best harbors on the coast 
— securely landlocked, and good anchorage in fifteen 



88 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

fathoms' mud — a beautiful dredging-ground. Large 
cockles, curious pelican's-feet, delicate nereids, clumsy 
crabs, and neat, active shrimp, abound and multiply as 
the sands of the sea in number. On the right is Salmon 
Bay settlement, one of the most populous places on the 
coast, consisting of seven families. And now the eye, 
sweeping north, east, and west, takes in the vast desola- 
tion of hills, relieved only by gleaming fragments of 
ponds, or snow-banks of a sullen white. There is no 
continuous series of ranges rising up back of one an- 
other, like any well-ordered mountain group, but a 
chopped sea of undeveloped mountains, whose tops seem 
to have been ground down by water and ice when the 
world was much younger than it is now, but which, after 
this, as if a rebel horde of Titans, made seemingly inef- 
fectual attempts to grow up again, and only succeeded 
in spots ; which, bare then, have been kept bare ever 
since by arctic frosts and snows. 

If we imagine we can see forests growing among 
those hills, it is o.nly because we have been told that 
woods do grow in the sheltered valleys, and now and 
then venture up the hill-sides. Thus the country runs 
back for hundreds of miles, the hills rising five to eight 
hundred feet high, bare and desolate, but the valleys are 
much better wooded in the interior of the country, be- 
ing warmer and more sheltered. There are no regular 
rivers in Labrador, only rows of ponds — and very 
crooked rows — linked by rapids, which the Mountaineers 
only can navigate in their light canoes. There are no 
water-sheds, no continuous valleys to unite into one 
stream the thousand ponds that gather in every depres- 
sion. 



STONE CIRCLES. 89 

But we have feasted long enough upon this rare, unique 
scene. We speak not of the freshness of the breeze, 
of the exhilaration and inspiration it brings, and not, 
least of all, of the perfect freedom from every sign of fly 
or mosquito. Now, as we return, for two miles of bog- 
trotting, an hour of black-fly and mosquito fighting ! 
While sitting upon the hill during that half-hour's rest 
the breeze kept the flies from our face ; but how secretly 
and in what untoward numbers had the silvery-legged 
rascals crept into our flannel shirts, covered hat and back, 
doing nothing but hold on for the wind ! but now, 
under lee of this wall, the plagues have the advantage. 
They fly into our face, eyes, nose, and mouth ; they do 
not bite hard, like the mosquitoes, but the vampires suck 
long and deep, leaving great clots of blood. To com- 
plete the work, half a dozen frightful horse-flies of gigan- 
tic stature hover about ; now and then, when we are not 
watching, they will settle down on our hands and bite 
terribly, making a wound which does not heal for days. 
It is useless to try to bear it. I make a stampede up 
the rocks to the breeze, but they follow in clouds, pounc- 
ing down like small-shot on my wide-awake. So run- 
ning, as if for my life, one moment, and stopping to rest 
the next ; now starting up a white-headed finch or soli- 
tary robin, or stopping to watch a Canadian jay or hun- 
gry cormorant sailing aloft, or pausing to trace out two 
or three contiguous circles of bowlder-stones, which 
marked the former wigwams of the Esquimaux, who used 
to have bloody fights on this island with the Mountain- 
eer Indians ; now wading a swamp, or making detours 
round miniature ponds, or jumping a narrow ravine, or 
circumnavigating a growth of tuckermel — I come to a 



90 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

Stand on the south side of the island. It has been blow- 
ing fresh for two or three days from the southwest, and 
the gulf rolls in a magnificent surf, sweeping grandly upon 
the pebbly beach or dashing wildly against the sea-walL 
Half a mile from shore a huge iceberg is stranded, and 
the wind blows cold and damp. Farther out on the 
Strait the sun flashes on four or five other fine bergs, 
though it is the middle of July. And so clear is the air, 
that the low blue-limestone coast of Newfoundland, forty 
miles opposite, can easily be seen. 

Now, where are all the sea-birds that I expected to 
find filling the air, and crowding the rocks, up here in 
Labrador ? A lonely raven is just passing over, a few 
small land-birds are chipping on the rocks, a small owl 
wings his noiseless flight low over the bogs — these, with 
a pair of saddle-back gulls sailing aloft, are about the 
only birds to be seen. Sometimes a loon flies over the 
island, or a small flock of eider-ducks settles down in a 
pool. If one pushes out a little way into the Strait, 
he will start up a few razor-billed auks, or see a flock of 
guillemots, or their cousins, the murres. People here 
call the guillemots sea-pigeons, though more like crows 
than pigeons in size and color. A flock of puffins will 
fly oflf just out of gunshot across the bows of one's boat, 
for all these sea-birds are shy and difficult to approach. 
I must delay a moment on these puflins. They are 
queer, grave birds, profoundly Quakerish in their habit, 
wise-looking as the seven Gothamites, only wanting a 
pair of good, old-fashioned, silver-bowed spectacles to 
set ofT their enormous hook-nosed visages. Just here 
they are not very abundant, but fifteen miles up the 
coast, at Bradore, these peculiar people have appropriated 



A FLOCK OF CURLEWS. 9I 

a red-sandstone island. On this patch of rock, whose 
soft, crumbling surface they bore in all directions, mak- 
ing galleries about a foot from the surface, they have 
bred from time immemorial. However wild they are 
on the waves, here they suffer themselves to be pulled 
forth from their holes and summarily choked by ardent 
ornithologists without a squeak of resistance. 

Indeed, June and July, or the first of August, is no 
time to come to Labrador for birds : all the ducks are 
among the inland ponds, breeding. The sea-birds that 
breed here gather in one place sixty miles down the coast, 
on the Bird Islands, forming the Mecatina group. There 
are few to molest their nests, and they live in compara- 
tive quiet. Let a crew visit a breeding-place in the middle 
of June, and they can very quickly load a boat with eggs. 
It is said that vessels come up here from Boston every 
year, and load up with eggs to carry back to the States. 

About the middle of August that beautiful and grace- 
ful bird, the sea-swallow, or arctic tern, makes its appear- 
ance, flying about the sea-cliffs, hovering over the fisher- 
men's boats, and keeping up an interminable screeching 
and twittering ; they are the most garrulous of gulls. 
With them appear a few of the rarer gulls. Then the 
ring-necked and semipalmated plover, and flocks of sand- 
peeps and yellow-legs gather on the flats. But the cur- 
lews eclipse them all. We had had intimations of their 
arrival. Already had small squadrons been seen wheel- 
ing around the hill-tops, and now over the sea, and as 
they advanced or retreated, their "mild mixing cadence" 
now grew loud and near, and now waxed fainter and 
fainter. On the afternoon of the loth of August I 
heard the alarm of " Curlew !" and, sure enough, over 



92 ONE OF FIFTY DAYS IN SOUTHERN LABRADOR. 

across the neck, a mile away, was a flock of these birds, 
darkening nearly a square mile of the sky. There must 
have been many thousands in that flock, all piping and 
whistling like the jingling of ten thousand sleigh-bells, 
or the whistling of the wind through the ropes of a 
squadron of seventy-fours, while performing a series of 
evolutions of wonderful celerity and precision. The 
whole mass wheeled around the hills and over the plain, 
now stretching out over the bay, made up of smaller, 
troops, chasing each other around and through the whole 
moving mass in the greatest apparent confusion and dis- 
order. It was really a great sight, this marshalling of 
the curlew hosts. After this grand review of their forces 
they separate into small flocks, scatter over the country 
to feed on the curlew-berries now ripening, or to patrol 
the shore at low-water in search of stray worms and 
snails. The inhabitants kill large quantities of this deli-- 
cious bird, and salt them down in barrels for winter use. 
They cannot conjecture where they come from, but say 
that the first northeast wind in late summer always 
brings them. 

But the sun is going down in the fog and mist driving 
in from the gulf. The wind has hauled to the east, and 
blows chilly and damp ; and so ended many of the thirty 
fair days of the fifty I spent in Southern Labrador. 



CHAPTER VI. 

a|[sUMMER's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 
I. From Boston to Henley Harbor. 

In the spring of 1864, Mr. William Bradford, the well- 
known marine artist of New York, organized a party to 
cruise along the coast of Labrador, and if. possible to 
reach Hudson's Strait, for the purpose of painting ice- 
bergs and arctic scenery. After having previously spent 
a summer on the southern coast, with no opportunity of 
extended explorations, it seemed rare good fortune to 
make one of a party bound for the Moravian settle- 
ments, and possibly Cape Chidley. 

On the 4th of June, at 10.15 a.m., the fast schooner 
Benjamin S. Wright, Captain Brown, with two pilots, 
Capt. Ichabod Handy of Fair Haven, Mass., for the 
northern coast, and Capt. French for the southern shore, 
a Norwegian mate and two deck hands, with a cook and 
two cabin boys, carrying a party of fourteen gentlemen 
comprising lawyers, clergymen, naturaUsts, sportsmen, 
and pleasure-seekers, left the Philadelphia Packet Pier, 
Boston. Owing to an easterly wind a tug towed us 
down to the Narrows, where we spread our canvas, and 
beat down to Provincetown for the purpose of buying a 
whaleboat, making harbor there at 9.30 in the evening. 
Spending Sunday at Provincetown, where we visited 
some friends in the coast-guard, several of whom after- 
wards distinguished themselves in the war of the Rebel- 

93 



94 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

lion, on the 6th, with a fresh northwest wind which so 
effectually ruffled the ocean that nearly every man set- 
tled his account there and then with the sea-god, our 
course was laid for Cape Sable, which we sighted at 
about I o'clock in the afternoon of the 7th. 

The following day we bowled along at the distance of 
twelve miles from the Nova Scotian coast, the wind 
blowing a fresh gale from the northwest, and about 2 
A.M. of the 8th ran into Chedabucto Bay, anchoring four 
miles from Port Mulgrave. Weighing anchor the next 
day and moving up to the town, a mean little fishing- 
hamlet, while the crew took in wood and water, each one, 
according to his taste, went either shopping or trouting 
in the rain, or geologizing. On the following day I 
walked towards Porcupine Point, a bold headland said 
to be 275 feet above the Gut of Canso. ^ The view over 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence is a very pleasant one. The 
Gut of Canso opens into the Gulf four miles from the 
Point. The drift material consists of a rich soil con- 
taining bits and masses of red sandstone, some of the 
fragments containing calamites and the impressions of 
delicate sea- weeds. The rocks in situ are a white con- 
glomerate dipping at an angle of 80° and with a N. and 
S. strike. 

The shores of the Gut of Canso are high and bold on 
the western side, but much lower on the Cape Breton 
shore. The contours of the hills on the Nova Scotian 
coast are like those of a granite-gneiss region, the hills 
terminating in drift "scaurs." On the Cape Breton side 
the houses are more numerous and the farms either more 
fertile or cultivated with greater care. At Port Mul- 
grave the inhabitants did not raise vegetables enough for 



IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 95 

their own consumption ; and not infrequently a farmer 
was seen ploughing with a single ox. Exchange was 
$1.95. The people were all "sesesh." Although for 
the disunion of the " States," nothing could separate them 
from the love of whiskey and gin, as in the course of the 
afternoon there was a miserable stabbing fray, witnessed 
by a good many of the inhabitants, though it should be 
said that there were thirty sail then in the port, from 
which part of the #naterial for the affray was afforded. 

Our fishermen returned with a liberal supply of trout, 
and Mr. Bradford shipped a steward, who turned out to 
be an Indian soldier, and had assisted in blowing Sepoys 
from the cannon's mouth. Whether he was morally and 
intellectually worse or better than a Sepoy was often a 
matter of discussion on the cruise. 

We were now ready to push out into the Gulf, and 
the latter was now ready for the reception of the Benj. 
S. Wright. For but a few days ago vessels had been 
jammed in the ice immediately north of Port Mulgrave, 
the ice having remained later in the Gulf and been more 
abundant the past spring than for years. We were told 
that it was possible for people to walk on the ice a hun- 
dred miles out from the Magdalen Islands. 

The next day found us off St. George's Bay, the sport 
of light, baffling winds or of dead calms, but these ena- 
bled us to receive lasting impressions of the beautiful 
green slopes of the Cape Breton shores, with their ex- 
panse of green sward framing the square acres of 
ploughed land centred by red farm-houses. These were 
our last views of cultivated fields and well-trimmed glebes, 
until on our return we beheld the rich red farm-lands ot 
Prince Edward's Island. 



96 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

Sunday the 1 2th was a red-letter day, spent about the 
home of the gannet or solan-goose. At seven o'clock 
in the morning — and what a glorious one it was : the 
air soft and balmy, our good vessel's bows gently rising 
and falling on the swell as if saluting in a measured, 
dignified way the appearance of the god of day — at this 
hour Entry Island, one of the Magdalens, was twelve 




THE LARGEST OF THE BIRD ROCKS, AS SEEN IN 1 864. 
(From a Photograph by Black.) 

miles off. It is a high mass of red sandstone with 
abrupt sides and surmounted by two knolls ; near it 
were several small islands, and a high grayish rock 
deeply incised by narrow valleys plunging suddenly 
down to the sea. 

At noon we approached the Bird Rocks, a group 
of three islets, the largest 250 feet high and from a 



THE BIRD ROCKS. 9/ 

quarter to half a mile in length, the longest diameter 
extending east and west. The top is nearly flat and 
slopes gently towards the south. It is formed, as seen 
from the south side through a good glass at a distance 
of half a mile, of red friable sandstone, with thin beds of 
grit, which near the water's edge are several feet in 
thickness, while several loose fragments look like bowl- 
ders, though there are no true transported rocks on the 
island. 

The islets were nearly white on top, and I supposed 
this was due to the guano, but Mr. Bradford assured me 
that the white frosting, as it seemed to be, was the birds 
themselves ; and sure enough, except a central patch of 
brown and green herbage, the western end was in part, 
and the eastern half of the island entirely, white with 
female gannets, resting on the rock above as well as on 
the larger shelves on the sides, while the small nooks and 
shelves of grit were appropriated by myriads of murres. 

At the report of a gun swarms of birds would rise 
from the rock and flutter in the air like flies, and at a 
rough estimate 10,000 were there. To the leeward 
many gannets, males, were seated in the water or flying 
over it, in company with a few murres — but nearly all 
were as if in ceaseless motion, and busy fishing or re- 
turning with fish to the avian metropolis.* 

* In this connection it is interesting to read the description of the Bird Rock 
in Cartier's first voyage. 

"Wee went southeast about 15 leagues, and came to three Hands, two of 
which are as steepe and vpright as any wall, so that it was not possible to climbe 
them; and betweene them there is a little rocke. These Hands were as full of 
birds, as any field or medow is of grasse, which there do make their nestes ; 
and in the greatest of them there was a great and infinite number of those that 
wee call Margaulx, that are white, and bigger than any geese, which were 
seuered in one part. In the other were onely Godetz, but toward the shoare 



98 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

Mr. Bradford spent a busy day in sketching the 
unique scene, and his photographer, Mr. Pierce, from 
Black's studio in Boston, took four good photographs 
of the rocks and birds. These rocks are the remnants 
of what were once vastly more extended strata, and the 
question arose in my mind whether the red soil of Port 
Mulgrave and vicinity were not the debris which had 
been in part borne from the Magdalen Isles, and in part 
from Prince Edward's Island. 

Since 1864, when the photograph was taken by Mr. 
Bradford of which the accompanying sketch is a repro- 
duction, great changes have come over the famous gan- 
net rookery of Bird Rocks. Mr. W. Brewster, who, 
with Prof. Hyatt and others, visited these rocks in 1881, 
says in his account : " In i860 the number of gannets 
breeding on the top of Great Bird (then uninhabited) 
was estimated by Bryant at about ' fifty thousand pairs,* 
or one hundred thousand birds. In 1872 Maynard 
found this portion of the colony reduced to about five 

there were of those Godetz, and Apponatz. We put into our boats so many of 
them as we pleased, for in lesse than one houre we might have filled thirtie such 
boats of them : we named them the Hands of Margaulx. About five leagues 
fro the said Hands on the west, there is another Hand that is about two leagues 
in length, and so much in breadth : there did we stay all night to take in water 
and wood. That Hand is enuironed round about with sand and hath a very 
good road about it, three or foure fadome deep. Those Hands have the best 
soile that euer we saw, for that one of their fields is more worth then all the 
New land. We found it all full of goodly trees, medovves, fields full of wild 
corne and peason bloomed, as thick, as ranke, and as faire as any can be seene 
in Britaine so that they seemed to have bene ploughed and sowed. There was 
also a great store of gooseberies, strawberies, damaske roses, parseley, with 
other very sweet and pleasant hearbes. About the said Hand are very great 
beasles as great as oxen, which have two great teeth in their mouths like vnto 
elephants teeth, and liue also in the sea. We saw one of them sleeping vpon 
the banke of the water ; wee thinking to take it went to it with our boates, but 
so soone as he heard vs, he cast himselfe into the sea. We saw also beares 
and wolves ; we named it Brions Hand. (Hakluyt, iii. 254.) 



FIRST VIEW OF " THE LABRADOR. 99 

thousand birds (a lighthouse had been erected on the 
summit of the rock and several men were living there). 
When w^e landed in 1881 the top of the rock was prac- 
tically abandoned, although there were some fifty nests 
at the northern end, which had been robbed a few days 
before, and about which the birds still Hngered." 

Mr. Brewster says, however, that the common guil- 
lemot (^Lomvia troile) still breeds at Bird Rocks in 
amazing numbers, but that the number is rapidly de- 
creasing, owing to the introduction of a cannon which is 
fired every half-hour during foggy weather. " At each 
discharge," he says, "the frightened murres fly from the 
rocks in clouds, nearly every sitting bird taking its ^^^ 
into the air between its thighs and dropping it after fly- 
ing a few yards. This was repeatedly observed during 
our visit, and more than once a perfect shower of eggs 
fell into the water around our boat." 

At 6 o'clock this evening we were 95 miles from 
Little Mecatina Island, and at 1 1 o'clock of the next 
day (the 13th), we sighted land lying under a mirage 
which looked like the land itself, while the snow-banks 
ashore were transformed into icebergs floating in the 
quasi sea. This singular mirage lasted until evening. 
As the land gradually "hove" in sight the mirage re- 
ceded and the . bergs became veritable banks of snow. 
Little Mecatina was passed at 6 in the evening ; its 
longer diameter was north and south, and the southern 
end of the glaciated island showed finely the"stoss" 
side, the " struck " side gradually sloping towards the 
north. The Labrador coast at this point becomes high 
and bold, presenting a continuous front to the Gulf, with 
an occasional " hump " rising perhaps 300 feet or more 



lOO A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

above the general level of the land. The Island of 
Mecatina is 685 feet above the Gulf, Cape Mecatina 
being the highest land from Mingan to Bradore. 

We dropped anchor in Sleupe harbor in Gore Island, 
after the quickest voyage Capt. French had ever made. 
The run from Boston had been a fine one, with north- 
west winds throughout, and no fog. At sunset the 
thermometer was 42°, and it grew still cooler as we ran 
into our harbor, which was on the southern exposure, on 
which were numerous snow-banks in the deep gulches 
leading down to the water. 

The rocks were red syenite, like those of Mt. Desert, 
Me., with its characteristic hummocky outline and pre- 
cipitous walls fronting the sea. No bowlders were seen 
about the harbor, but the rockv shores were marked and 
polished by the ice for a few feet above the water's edge. 

The murres and saddle-back gulls were now just 
hatching, while the eider-ducks were beginning to lay 
their eggs. The curlew-berry was now in flower. In 
the garden of one of the settlers (Michael Cante), who 
were French Canadians, the rhubarb or pie plant was 
just above ground, the parsnips were six inches high, 
and the grass about the houses was four inches in height, 
but as yet there was no verdure on the hills, the surface 
being still sere and rusty, the snow having so recently 
melted away. The season opens here the middle or last 
of May, when the snow mostly disappears. The ice left 
the bay the 20th of May, and about this date the black 
bear comes out of his winter quarters. It was too early 
for cod or salmon, and the capelin had not appeared. 

Our harbor was between two islands, and on one were 
two houses, and on the other five, one of them a well- 



THE EIDER-DUCK AND ITS NEST. lOI 

built, neat house. About them lounged several Esqui- 
maux dogs. We dredged in ten fathomfj on a rocky 
bottom, not, however, bringing up any novelties, though 
the animals were all of purely arctic typ^s. 

June 14 was spent in egging and in collecting insects. 
Mr. Bradford secured the services of a Frenchman and 
his sail-boat, and with several others of the party landed 
on three islands situated four or five miles away. We 
found eight nests and twenty-five eggs of the eider- 
duck, with those of the murre or guillemot and auk, 
besides three gull's eggs, probably those of the saddle- 
back. We also found a nest of the red loon : it was 
situated on the edge of a small pond, The nest, partly 
submerged, was fourteen inches in diameter and in size 
and appearance like the gulls' nests, though the latter 
were placed in dryer localities. The eider-ducks' nests 
were abundant, as were those of the razor-billed auks, 
but those of the murres were even less common. The 
eider-ducks ten years ago were extremely abundant, but 
the unremitting attacks upon their nests by "eggers" 
has resulted in the partial extinction of this valuable and 
interesting bird. All the eiders were busy in making 
their nests and in laying their eggs. The old or com- 
pleted nests contained a great mass of down, and were 
i'2 to 15 inches in outside diameter, the downy mass in 
which the eggs sank being five or six inches high ; the 
newer nests were without down ; there were about five 
eggs to a nest. Most of the nests which we saw were 
built on low land, near pools and not far from the sea- 
water, in a dense thicket of dwarf spruce trees, called 
" tucking-bush " or " tuckermel." The murres and auks, 
as is well known, do not make nests, but drop their eggs 



102 A Sl^MMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

under propcting rocks, or on overhanging shelves on 
high cliffs, or under blocks of granite. I found one 
murre's egg w.^ich had been laid on the ice under a huge 
rock, and as I v'orked my way under the rock to get at 
the single egg, the stupid bird did not fly, but simply 
moved a few steps beyond my reach, making an odd 
guttural noise. It need scarcely be added that the vicin- 
ity of a murre's or auk's nest is filthy in the extreme. 
The egg-shell of these nestless birds is very thick, so 
that they may roll about or drop down without break- 
ing ; how they came to be so much more conical or 
pointed at one end than usual is an interesting question.* 
We also saw a king eider flying with a small flock of 
eiders, as well as several "shags" and a northern phal- 
erope. 

Insect-life was now stirring ; the pools abounded in 
water boatmen {Corixd)^ and whirligig beetles {Gyri- 
nus), while a species of feathered gnat {Corethrci) was 
just leaving the pupa, the cast skins of the latter floating 
on the surface of the pools. A lonely humble-bee was 
flying fussily about, a syrphus-fly was hovering over the 
flowers of the cloud-berry, and other insects were found 
under stones, amongst the moss, or in the water. The 
appearance of insect-life corresponded to that of south- 

* " There was one bird in particular which we watched for some time, the 
proud possessor of a brilliant green, strongly marked egg— as usual, to all 
appearance quite out of proportion to her own size — which she arranged and 
rearranged under her, trying with beak and wing to tuck the sharp end between 
her legs, but never quite satisfied that it was covered as it should be. But for 
the wonderful provision for its safety in the shape of the gtdllemof s egg (a round, 
flat-sided wedge, -which makes it, when pushed, ttirn rotmd on the point instead of 
rolling, as eggs of the usual form if placed on a bare rock would do), most of 
those we saw would probably have been dashed to pieces long before." (T. 
Digby Pigott's Birds of the Outer Faroes, 1888.) 



THE CORMORANT AND ITS NEST. IO3 

ern Maine at the end of April. The next day a white- 
faced wasp {Vespa maculatd) flew aboard the vessel. 
The day was spent in searching for eider nests, of which 
I found a dozen in the " tucking-bush," with thirty eggs, 
and the rude nests and eggs of the saddle-back gull. 

June i6th was a beautiful day, rather warm, with light 
winds from the east and south, or quite calm. In the 
afternoon a shower passed over from the west, and at night 
the wind was northerly ; the southwest summer winds had 
not yet set in, the prevailing winds being northerly. We 
spent the day in a search for the eggs of the " waupigan " 
or common cormorant, and those of the shag or double- 
crested cormorant ; William, a very intelligent French 
Canadian, taking us to their nesting-place in his row-boat. 
The nests were situated on a high cliff, a sort of shelf. 
We let William down over the precipice with a rope. 
There were fifty-five nests in all, and over them rose 
flocks of cormorants disturbed at our coming ; they were 
very shy and flew rapidly far off", wheeling about in cir- 
cles, but not daring to come near the nesting-place. 
There were five eggs in a nest ; the latter were about 
20 inches in outside diameter, built of thick birch limbs, 
whitened, as was the rocky shelf, with the excrement of 
the birds, and the entire neighborhood was pervaded 
with a far-reaching and intolerable stench of decaying 
fish. The eggs of the common cormorant are said to be 
laid earlier in the season than those of any other bird ; 
they are long, pointed, and of a dirty tea-color, some 
nearly white. The shags' nests, mixed with those of the 
waupigan, were situated in another place adjoining. 
They are usually laid on the bare rock, and William was 
surprised to find them on the precipice. The eggs are 



I04 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

smaller than those of the common cormorant, are whiter 
and more pointed, and are laid later than those of any- 
other bird. 

On our return we went by invitation into William's 
•house ; his children were attractive in looks, with fine 
eyes. This family and a neighboring one were the two 
leading French Canadian families on the coast. They 
told us that it was harder to gain a livelihood than here- 
tofore, the game and fish getting scarcer. Still, one 
family winter before last shot iioo partridges. William, 
by the way, told us that there were four varieties of part- 
ridge : the spruce partridge, and the white or ptarmigan, 
of which they distinguish the mountain ptarmigan and 
the river ptarmigan, the latter the rarest ; the fourth kind 
they call the pheasant. The partridges were said to be 
now laying their eggs. William raised last year twenty- 
five bushels of potatoes, also turnips, while barley, hav- 
ing three months to grow, ripens on this inhospitable 
coast. Sheep might be raised ; there were no cows, 
though to the westward they are kept the year through. 
We were told that a walrus was killed near St. Augus- 
tine within twenty-five years, and that two had been seen 
in this vicinity since then. " It will be remembered that 
the walrus formerly abounded in the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, having been rendered extinct by the early fisher- 
men on the Magdalen Islands. 

We saw an egging vessel at a distance. The "agg- 
ers " watch their chances to take great quantities of eggs 
of sea-birds, especially those of the eider-duck and 
murres. But there are now few who follow this illegal 
and nefarious occupation. Twenty years ago the busi- 
ness was at its height, and a schooner would load a cargo 



TRANSPARENCY OF THE WATER. IO5 

of 65 barrels of eggs and take them to the States or up 
the St. Lawrence River to Quebec or Montreal. Of late 
years they would give half of what they found to the 
settlers on the coast as hush-money. When collecting 
the eggs they would make "caches" of them, covering 
the heaps with moss ; and if they were on the point of 
being caught they would smash the whole cargo of eggs 
rather than be seized with them. Many are the adven- 
tures which the eggers have passed through, and the 
stories told of them rival the tales of smugglers and pri- 
vateersmen on more favored shores. They still collect 
and wantonly destroy the eggs of murres. 

The eggs of the eider-ducks we found to make a good 
omelet, but those of the murres and gulls were too fishy 
lobe palatable ; the food of the murres and puffin as well 
as gulls consisting largely of small fish, such as capelin 
and lance fish (^Ammodytes). We saw male eiders two 
years old ; they were brown with a little white ; we were 
told that the eider is four years in arriving at maturity ; 
the guillemot only two years ; the puffins and murres 
becoming adult in one year. The eider-duck is easily 
domesticated, and the young will follow a person to 
whom they are accustomed like a dog. 

As soon as our vessel came into shallow water, — and in 
our boat excursions we were constantly impressed by the 
transparency of the water on this coast — we could look 
down for thirty or forty feet and see with distinctness the 
bottom with dark masses of sea-urchins and starfish. 
The water is more transparent than on the Florida coast. 
Indeed the fishermen sometimes complain of this prop- 
erty of the water, saying that the fish can see the nets too 
readily and do not enter them. The water is so clear 



I06 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

that the Cteiiophores, Idyia roseola and Pleurobrachia, as 
well as another kind I could not secure, were beautifully 
distinct far down in the pellucid depths. Fishing had 
begun at this locality to-day, the cod having struck in. 
It is evident that the ice having disappeared for nearly a 
month the water inshore undoubtedly had grown warm 
enough to allow the cod and other fish to come into shoal- 
water and spawn. It was manifest that as the season 
opened later and later from south to north, the move- 
ment inshore would be later and later from south to north, 
and this fact has undoubtedly given rise to the popular 
impression that the cod and other fish migrated from the 
southern to the northern portions of the coast of our 
continent. 

I anxiously questioned William as to the nature of the 
interior of Labrador. He told me that there were plains 
and terraces inland ; that there were toads and frogs and 
" lizards," which being interpreted undoubtedly means 
the salamander, most probably Plethodon glutinosus of 
Baird. He had been here twenty years before he saw 
^ a grasshopper, but this was not on the coast, but in the 
interior ; and I know scarcely a better criterion of an 
arctic land-fauna than the entire absence of grasshoppers 
on the Labrador coast, since none occur in the circum- 
polar regions, either treeless Arctic America, Greenland 
or Spitzbergen ; but the interior wooded portion of the 
Labrador peninsulsf supports a truly boreal or " Canadian" 
insect fauna, with grasshoppers. 

Among the insects found were the showy caterpillars 
oi Arctia caja and a weevil. Of the more noticeable 
flowers, there were a pink Arenaria, and a leek-like plant 
which I have often seen on the summit of Mt. Washington. 



CARIBOU ISLAND. 10/ 

The 1 7th we weighed anchor, and with light winds 
and some rain early in the morning, but a strong north- 
easterly head-wind in the forenoon, we made only twenty- 
five miles during the day. The coast along our course 
was of very even height, the monotonous outline being 
relieved by an occasional elevation. The rock was of 
syenite with its characteristic scenic features. It was of 
warm, reddish flesh tints, but full of chinks and cracks, 
made by the water percolating or running into them and 
freezing, resulting in the cracking and disruption of large 
rock masses. Then the continued action of the frost 
year after year widens the chinks into gulches, with even, 
precipitous sides, now filled with snow-banks ten or 
fifteen feet long, and sometimes a dozen or more rods 
in extent, their edges bordered with arctic flowers. The 
hills were barren on top, with moss and dwarf spruce in 
the cavities or ravines. Here and there were to be seen 
clumps of grass, but the herbage in a Labrador fore- 
ground is not grasses or sedges, but low shrubby woody 
plants such as the dwarf cranberry, the curlew-berry 
{EmpetrtLin nigi^twi), etc., which form a dense uniform 
carpet of varied but dull green hues. 

On the afternoon of the i8th we dropped anchor near 
Caribou Island, and on landing found Mr. Carpenter, the 
missionary of these shores, who had befriended us in so 
many ways while camping on this island in the summer 
of i860. He was well and prospering in his good work. 
I lost no time in borrowing a spade and digging for 
quaternary fossils, and was rewarded with the discovery 
of several species not detected in i860; among these 
were Serripes groenlandicus, Buccinwm undatiLin, etc. 

On the evening before June 20, the longest day of the 



I08 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR, 

year, I could read fine print until half-past eleven at 
night. The next morning I dredged in eight fathoms 
before weighing anchor, and was delighted to find several 
large specimens of a delicate bivalve shell (^Pandorma 
arenosa); it was afterwards dredged up the coast at 
Long Island in fifteen fathoms in sand and stony bottom. 
It had not before been found south of the polar seas ; 
its discovery so far south was interesting from the fact 
that we had found it in a fossil state in sandy strata of 
clay at Brunswick, Me., and had also been found in the 
quaternary clays at Saco, Me., by Mr. C. B. Fuller. The 
association of this shell with Nucula expansa (antiqua) 
in the brick-yard clays gives positive proof that during 
the wane of the ice period the shore of Maine was the 
home of a truly polar assemblage of marine animals, and 
that then as now on this coast these shells were not con- 
fined to deep water, but lived in shallow retired bays in 
water not over fifty feet in depth. 

Throughout the day we were in sight of the butte-like 
Bradore Hills, the highest of the three mountains being 
1264 feet above the level of the Gulf. As these moun- 
tains overlook the scene of Jacques Cartier's explorations 
in the Straits of Belle Isle, we would suggest that the 
highest of the three elevations be named Mt. Cartier. 

On the shores of Bradore Bay are still to be seen, it 
is said, the ruins of the ancient port of Brest, which 
was founded by the Bretons and Normans about the 
year 1500. The ruins are situated about three miles 
west of the present boundary of Canada at Blanc Sablon. 
Samuel Roberton states in his Notes on the Coast of 
Labrador : "■ As to the truth of Louis Robert's remarks 
there can be no doubt, as maybe seen from the ruins and 



MOUNT CARTIER. IO9 

terraces of the buildings, which were chiefly constructed 
of wood. I estimate that at one time it contained 200 
houses, besides stores, etc., and perhaps 1000 inhabitants 
in the winter, which would be trebled during the sum- 
mer. Brest was at the height of its prosperity about the 
year 1600, and about thirty years later the whole tribe 



THE BRADORE HILLS, THE HIGHEST PEAK MT. CARTIER. 

of the Eskimos, who had given the French so much 
trouble, were totally extirpated or expelled from that 
region. After this the town began to decay, and 
towards the close of the century the name was changed 
to Bradore." 



no A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

By sundown our vessel had made only ten miles, be- 
ing off Belles Amours, with a southerly and very light 
breeze. The sunset was a glorious one, while the rnoon 
rose through the haze and mirage over the snow-banks 
of the Newfoundland coast. At three in the afternoon 
we saw several miles ahead of us the fields of ice which 
we were soon to encounter, choking up the straits, and 
enhanced in apparent extent by the mirage. The Labra- 
dor coast, along which we were sailing, is very bold and 
bluff-like, with lower points of land reaching out to us 
in a picturesque way, the remarkably even outline of the 
coast being interrupted by the Bradore Hills. 

The dredge was put down about two miles from shore 
in from ten to fifteen fathoms on a hard, stony bottom, 
with good success. Beautiful specimens of Lucernaria 
quadricornis, four inches in height and of a dull amber 
brown, came up in the same dredge with that superb 
naked mollusc, Dendronotus arborescens, which were of a 
beautiful amber hue, dotted with white points. From 
the stomachs of fishes caught by some of the party were 
extracted specimens of a rare arctic crab {Chionoecetes 
opilio), which proved to be not uncommon in from ten. 
to fifty fathoms in the Straits of Belle Isle. 

The next day, from nine in the morning until three in 
the afternoon, we moved slowly through the floe-ice, 
which proved to be the outskirts of the immense fields 
of ice which this summer lined the northern coast of 
Labrador. Mr. Bradford kept his photographer busily 
at work taking views of the more remarkable forms. The 
splendid green hues, so varied and striking; the endless 
variety in the water-worn forms ; the weird noises,- now 
harsh and grating, now loud and roaring, produced by the 



CTENOPHORES IN THE FLOE-ICE. 



Ill 



attrition of the cakes of ice ground together by the sHght 
swell or the conflicting currents, lent unending interest 
to the scene. The floes had evidently the air of tired 
and worn travellers ; they had been borne for at least a 
thousand miles from Baffin's Bay ; had been thrown upon 
one another by storms and ocean currents, broken and 
frozen together over and over again ; they were now rap- 
idly melting away in the bright, warm sun, for the water 
was filled with bits of clear dark ice, the fragments of large 
floes. Our vessel, her sails scarcely filled out by the light 
baffling breeze, rose and fell, ploughing her way through 
the yielding floes. The water between the cakes was 
alive with bits of animated ice, myriads of transparent 
Ctenophores crowding the sea from the surface to a depth 
of a fathom or more. The roseate Idyia, throwing off 
the most delicate reddish tints, seemed be- 
sides to reflect the delicate blues and 
greens cast off by the floes ; an Alcinoe- 
like form, floating on its side, with blood- 
red tentacles, rose and sank among the ice- 
cakes, and with these in lesser numbers 
was associated that beautiful spherical liv- 
ing ball of ice, the Beroe or Pleurobrachia 
rhododactyla 

the Mertensia ovum, a creature as fragile as it is beauti- 
ful. It is of a delicate pink color, with iridescent hues ; 
the ovaries bright red, the deep purple-red tentacles in 
striking contrast with the delicate tints of the body itself. 
From this point until we reached Hopedale in lat. 55° 
30' it constantly occurred in the floe-ice, but was rarely 
seen in waters from which the ice had disappeared, as in 
harbors free from ice the Mertensia would keep out of 




,_,, A 1 • T1 r Idyia roseola, nat- 

1 he Alcmoe-like form was urai size. 



112 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

view near the bottom ; but as soon as the ice drifted in 
and choked up any harbor we were in, myriads could be 
seen near the surface, rising and falling between the ice- 
cakes, gracefully throwing out their tentacles, which 
were nearly two feet in length, and suddenly withdraw- 
ing them when disturbed. No true jelly-fish were to be 
seen ; the season was early for them, but the beautiful 
polar shell-less snail, the Clione limacina, with its long 
wings and bright red tints, was not uncommon. 

Stopped by the ice early the next morning we came 
to anchor at Belles Amours, waiting for a change of wind 
to allow a passage past or through the floe-ice. The 
coast is high, abrupt, and precipitous. Numerous 
streams well stocked with trout tumble into the sea, and 
the drift deposits, of limited extent, consisted of coarse 
gravels and bowlders of syenite. 

We looked for insects, finding nothing of particular 
interest, though noticing that the ants had just come out 
of their winter quarters. Glad enough were we to find a 
snail {Hyalina electrina), and in the mud at the bottom 
of the ponds a little bivalve shell {Pisidium) ; under 
stones in the brooks were larval stones-flies and Ephem- 
erae ; while a little salamander {Plethodon glutinosus) 
of a slate color with a paler light dorsal band ran into 
the water, to my great disappointment just eluding my 
grasp, as it is doubtful if any salamander occurs much 
farther north on the coast than this species. 

Here the alders were still in blossom, showing that 
the season had just opened, though the shadberry, the 
golden thread {Coptis) and the bunch-berry {Cornus 
canadensis) were likewise in bloom ; on the other hand 
the mountain-ash was just unfolding its buds. 



THE KILLER. II3 

Dredgings carried on in so shallow water as four and 
six fathoms revealed pelicans' feet (aporrhais) in abun- 
dance and very fine large Serripes groenlaiidica, and with 
them in the mud and sand a great abundance of nemer- 
tean and other worms, and Amphipod Crustacea, with 
fine examples of Ctmia bispinosa. 

The principal house-owner at this fishing-station was 
a Mr. Buckle, who had been out here for twelve years 
from Boston. To his comfortable house was attached a 
conservatory and garden. Though the scanty soil on 
this barren point looked unpromising enough, it was 
comparatively rich. He had built his own schooner, a 
vessel of thirty tons. 

On the beach was the skull of a " killer" ; it had re- 
cently been " brought ashore and was surrounded by a 
number of hungry whelks {Buccimwi iLndatttni) which 
were cleaning off the flesh from the bones. The killer 
is the most voracious of the smaller cetaceans, and is the 
bulldog among the whales. The head is very blunt, the 
skull thick, the jaws powerful, the teeth longer than 
those of the grampus. It is at once known when swim- 
ming in the water by its high, narrow, pointed dorsal 
fin, which projects five or six feet out of water. It at- 
tacks with great boldness and pertinacity the right and 
finback whales, gouging out from their lips and side 
lumps of flesh, and, as Captain Handy told me, is espe- 
cially fond of the whale's tongue. 

The next day we walked inland, following up the 
stream which empties into the Gulf at Belles Amours. 
We, however, took the wrong side of the brook and failed 
to see the cascade where the stream, as we were told, 
falls down over a precipice forty feet high ; but irom a 



114 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

hill perhaps five hundred feet high, which overlooked the 
country, we could trace the course of the brook for about 
two miles, where it ran down a steep ravine, with ponds 
on either side, from which flowed streams sending thin 
and broken sheets of water over steep precipices. The 
lake from which the stream issued was perhaps a mile 
long, situated on high land, and a foaming stream poured 
into it from the northwest, while farther on in another 
depression was probably a second lake like the one in 
view. Such is an ordinary Labrador stream — a chain of 
pond^ connected by rapids or waterfalls. There was a 
dreary sameness to the surface of the country, relieved, 
however, by a few snow-banks. During our ramble we 
heard the familiar liquid notes of the wood thrush, and 
saw some coots flying over the pond. In the afternoon 
the wind hauled into the eastward and was followed by 
rain. 

The 24th was misty and drizzly ; the wind east veering 
to the northeast. We dredged all the afternoon, part of 
the time scraping a coralline bottom. An arctic sea-cu- 
cumber {Peniacta calcigerd) was common in five fathoms 
in mud, with the largest Serripes yet met with. The 
most interesting form brought up was a beautiful hydroid 
{Coryne mirabilis) growing on the red sea-weed {Ptilota 
elegans). It was anchored by its stalk, with bell-shaped 
medusae attached, which were provided with four pink 
eyes and short, thick, knotted tentacles, the pendant 
proboscis being very long, club-shaped and of a pinkish 
hue. 

While lying at anchor a few boat's lengths from shore 
we were visited by two or three w^easels, which must 
have swum off" to the vessel. They were exceedingly 



BELLES AMOURS. 115 

tame, approaching within a foot of my finger even when 
it was kept in motion. 

On one side of our harbor was, as at Caribou Island, a 
sandy beach where the fishermen could, haul their nets 
for lance. The Newfoundlanders would come here in 
their clumsy boats from a distance of eight miles, where 
their vessels were at anchor, and seine for lance fish. 
They made a great deal of noise about it, though there 
were only two boats ; one man would stand up in the 
stern paying out the net, while the full boat's crew would 
row rapidly around the fish, and another man standing up 
to his waist in the water hauled in the net ; in this way 
four barrels of fish are often caught at a single haul. 

Mr. Phoenix, one of our party, here caught a young 
salmon eight inches long. The next day (the 25th) 
saw us still weather-bound with thick fog and rain, clear- 
ing up towards the evening. In codfish caught at a 
depth of fifteen or twenty fathoms we found large fine 
specimens of the "lobworm {Arenicola piscatorwm) 2^1^, 
a fine polar shrimp {Crangon boreas). To-day I found 
the first Cyanea or nettling jelly-fish, the species which 
grows on the banks of Newfoundland by the end of 
summer, two feet in diameter, with long, trailing ten- 
tacles sometimes six fathoms in length ; it is these 
feelers, filled with microscopic darts or lasso-cells, which 
become entangled with the lines and poison the hands 
of the fishermen. As yet not a common jelly-fish, the 
Aitrelia aurita, had been seen. 

The next day we were released from our prison ; a 
fresh northwest wind cleared the ice from the shore, and 
our good ship made a fine run to Henley Harbor ; time 
from,6 A.M. to 3. 30 p.m. | fAs we sailed out of the harbor 



Il6 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

we could see that the low point running out into the 
Gulf from the Laurentian background of syenite was the 
western extremity of the basin of Cambrian red sand- 
stones and grits which extend between Belles Amours 
and Anse-au-Sablon. Skirting the coast within a mile 
or two of these interesting series of rocks, they are seen 
to rise to a height of five or six hundred feet, forming 
the coast line, but with a contour tame and monotonous 
compared with the syenitic hills of Bradore. The belt is 
a narrow one, and while sailing past the shore we could 
look up through the harbors and bays to the low coni- 
cal hills of Laurentian gneiss in the interior. Passing 
by Bradore Bay the lofty buttes of Bradore are seen to 
rise up from the low foreground of red sandstone. We 
then passed within sight of Greenly Island, where in 1 856, 
during a severe southwest gale, so sudden and common 
in the strait, thirty-one vessels for want of good anchor- 
age and shelter were driven upon a lee shore. Parra- 
keet Island then hove in sight, a favorite breeding-place 
for the parrakeet or puffin, with a single house on it, 
the hospitable mansion of a member of the ubiquitous 
Jones family, where in i860 a party from our camp on 
Caribou Island received board and lodging for which 
only thanks would be accepted. 

We then sight Blanc Sablon. The land here is high 
and descends to the sea in five very distinct terraces, of 
which the second is much the highest. There were 
huge bowlders of grit on the beach ; the raised beaches 
were packed with bowlders and the terraces in general 
direction appeared in perspective, as if dipping up the 
strait ; like river-terraces they were parallel to each 
other, but the lower one gradually dips down and loses 



THE PRIMORDIAL SANDSTONES, II7 

itself in the water, while another slopes in the opposite 
direction. The higher terraces appear as if wooded or 
green. There were indeed three shades of green : in the 
lower terrace the debris is covered with a pale green 
herbage ; the older vegetation is darker, while the upper 
rusty green tint is very dark. 

At Blanc Sablon, which was originally so named by 
Jacques Cartier, the settlement consists of twenty 
houses ; they were painted white and from the vessel 
appeared like masses of floe-ice stranded on the shore. 
Of the houses four are "rooms," or fishing-establish- 
ments. 

We then pass the fishing-settlement of Forteau, with 
a lighthouse on the point, besides about twenty houses, 
and a Catholic church. Off the lighthouse is Shallop 
Island ; the harbor is two or three miles deep, walled in 
by vertical cliffs, furrowed and streaked by rain and frost. 
Into the harbor empties a salmon stream ; one man here 
seems to have the monopoly of the salmon fishery, put- 
ting up from twenty to sixty barrels a year ; they are salted 
and sent to Europe, 

Now as we pass on, the bay opens and at its head 
we can see the Laurentian formation, with its low, ob- 
tusely pointed gneiss hills ; but the general surface of 
the Labrador coast is very uniform, while the opposite 
shores of Newfoundland now recede and appear to be 
much lower. The strait is about eleven miles wide in 
its narrowest part. 

Sailing on but half a mile off shore at Anse-au-Loup, 
we can plainly see that the Cambrian rocks are red and 
gray sandstones — that the strata, almost horizontal, dip 
a little to the west, descending to the strait by three 



Il8 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

rock-terraces or shelves. A large brook here plunges 
in a broad sheet of foam straight down into the sea. The 
east side of the harbor of Anse-au-Loup is much higher 
than the western, the surface is irregular, and the but- 
tressed steeps recall the Palisades of the Hudson. Then 
we pass along a beautiful green glacis, and on the 
northw^est face of the bluff are five terraces,, with the 
sandstone strata slightly inclined. Here on the lowest 
bluff are to be seen four terraces (Fig. B). 

In the bay east of Anse-au-Loup, whose shores seemed 




-^.TERRACES AT BLANC SABLON ; B, AT ANSE-AU-LOUP ; C, TERRACES SEEN 
FROM THE MOUTH OF A BAY EAST OF ANSE-AU-LOUP. 

to be well wooded, we can again look through to the 
original broken Laurentian rock, and the Cambrian 
sandstone (Fig. C) runs out into a low point terminat- 
ing in a low, shelving, green glacis. On this point is 
the fishing-hamlet of Semedit (a corruption of Saint 
Modeste), with but two houses. 

The wind freshened off the cliffs, and now sailing on, 



BELLE ISLE. II9 

the rough and fissured syenitic coast is in marked con- 
trast to the Cambrian shores we had just left. Going 
farther on we pass from syenitic to gneiss rocks, which 
rise from the water in long swells. 

Belle Isle, the Isle of Demons of the early navigators, 
now heaves in sight ; the Labrador coast is more sub- 
dued, the shores sloping to the water's edge. There are 
no islands along the coast, and within five miles of 
Henley Harbor the rock becomes entirely gneiss in char- 
acter, and we lose sight of the rough, hummocky syen- 
itic hills, though masses of flesh-red syenite are seen 
resting upon the dark gneiss rocks, forming a sea-wall. 

Now that notable landmark, the Devil's Dining 
Table, appears to view, and we soon distinguish Henley 
and Castle Islands, the two latter like two flat oblong 
blocks laid by Cyclopean hands on a foundation of rock. 



CHAPTER VIL 

A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

II. HENLEY HARBOR TO CAPE ST. MICHAEL. 

As we entered Henley Harbor the scene was unique. 
The strait was clear of ice, though a few days earlier 
the harbor had been packed with it, and remnants were 
stranded along the shore or carried hither and thither 
with the tides. The outlines of some of the pieces were 
beautiful ; many were painted with green tints while 
the sun was high, but later in the afternoon the greens 
were succeeded by bright azure blues, contrasting with 
the almost cobalt blues of the distant Laurentian hills. 
The entrance to Henley Harbor is very fine, the sea- 
cliffs being over 200 feet high, while behind are the pe- 
culiar outlines of the Laurentian gneiss, rising in long 
swells like whales' backs to a height of perhaps five or 
six hundred feet. Henley Harbor lies under the lofty, 
precipitous basaltic cliffs of the Devil's Dining Table, 
which caps Henley Island. We sail through a fleet of 
Newfoundland fishermen, whose low, thick masts, strong, 
clumsy rigging, and ironed and planked hulks — for they 
were sealers, and had not stopped to doff their ice-armor 
— contrasted with the beautiful model, slender, tapering 
masts and spars of our fleeter craft. Their decks were 
crowded with men, women, and children, dogs and 
goats, for these people had, like the old Norsemen, 
brought their families and stock with them for a sum- 



THE SEAL FISHERY. 121 

mer's stay on the coast. Ashore, under the dark, beet- 
ling crag, lay the fishing-hamlet of Henley Harbor. 
The houses were small and mean, the flat roof of some 
covered with turf, the grass or moss growing on them, 
w^hile the fish-houses and "stages" were of the meanest 
description. 

After coming to anchor we were boarded by the cap- 
tain of one of the sealers, a brigantine of perhaps 140 tons 
burden, lately in from Carbonear in Conception Bay. 
Her bows and also her sides were planked and heavily 
ironed to resist the ice in the spring sealing in the Gulf. 
The captain had, immediately after discharging his cargo 
of sealskins and blubber — and the smells rising up 
through the hold and companion-way proved the fact ad 
naiiseam — only delayed long enough in port to put in 
130 bushels of salt, and then cleared for the Labrador 
coast without stopping to strip off the outer planking. 
The captain was an intelligent, stalwart, English-born 
man only twenty years old, who had been to sea for six 
years. He was frank and communicative, and in half 
an hour gave us some insight into the mysteries of fish- 
ing and sealing. He had inherited the business, his fa- 
ther having been a sealer for fifty years. He owned 
the vessel and had brought along a cook ; he took, pas- 
sage free, eleven families, numbering 130 souls, men, 
women, and children, with goats, dogs, cats, and provi- 
sions for the whole party, and was to land them at some 
harbor on the coast north of the Strait, where they 
might spend the fishing season in their rude summer 
houses, called " tilts." 

During the voyage up the women are stowed aft and 
in the hold, and in a storm — and when are there two 



122 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

continuously pleasant days on this coast ? — the hatches 
are battened down, the food is handed to them through 
a hole in the cabin, and then they are left to take care 
of themselves as best they can until the storm clears off, 
when the hatches are removed, and the forlorn passen- 
gers can take a breath of fresh air. 

The captain does' not take an active part in the fish- 
ing, but makes his profits by charging for freight on the 
fish. If the season is a good one and his vessel is soon 
filled, he goes back to Newfoundland and charters more 
vessels to carry back all the fish which have been caught. 
The season lasts from the end of. June until about the 
20th of October. 

The season for the seal fishery during the past spring 
was from March 25th until June 4th. The Gulf, of 
course, was filled with ice, no water being in sight from 
shore. A successful "catch" of seals is "better than 
9000." Each vessel carries fourteen boats, which are 
piled up on deck ; four men man a boat ; each man is 
provided with a gaff or boat-hook and a piece of ratline 
three and one-half fathoms long. On coming up to 
where the seals are lying, the crew land on the ice. The 
sealer runs up to a seal lying near its hole, which may be 
only a rod or so from the vessel or boat, clubs it — and 
it is easily stunned and killed with one or two blows — 
sculps it, then peals off the skin and blubber, leaving 
the carcass on the ice-floe. Each man can tie up five 
sealskins, and drag them to the vessel, and sally out 
again, rushing ahead and racing with the other crews of 
" bloodhounds." The scene is one of excitement and 
peril, the ice constantly endangering the vessel, which is 
liable to be " nipped " and to founder, leaving the ship- 



THE SEAL FISHERY, 1 25 

wrecked sealers to burn their vessel and make their way 
ashore over the ice. One of Mr. Bradford's most suc- 
cessful paintings represents a sealer " nipped " by the 
ice, the crew abandoning her after having set fire to their 
vessel, and walking with mournful steps over the ice in 
the direction of land. The delicate blues of the ice, 
the sullen, neutral tints of the sky, the red glare of the 
flames breaking out of the burning ship, and the warm 
tints of the costumes of the men in the foreground, 
vividly portray a most tragic scene, enacted only too 
often on. the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

To return to our statistics: a "crew" of sealers on 
the ice is composed of fifty men ; each one, if successful, 
securing five seals. Two hundred and fifty pelts may 
be brought back after each sally from the vessel. In 
this way, when the seals are abundant, from 2500 to 3000 
sealskins are taken in a single day, 9000 making a cargo. 
The shares in the enterprise are ^60 each man. The 
captain takes "half, "leaving the men in the lurch," as 
our informant said, which being interpreted means that 
the men realize little or no profits from the voyage. 

A sealskin is v.'^orth $4.00, a full cargo, perhaps, sell- 
ing in the rough to traders for $30,000 or $40,000 ; the 
profits on a full cargo are therefore considerable, but the 
men's " half," being distributed among a large number, 
does not amount to much for each man. This spring 
(1864) the seal fishery was a failure. 

The young seals are killed by knocking them on the 
head with a boat-hook or club, and the old ones by 
shooting them with heavily loaded old muskets. The 
hunters .make holes in the ice and then watch for their 
heads to appear above water. Of all the different kinds 



124 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

of seals, the Greenland or harp seal is the most fero- 
cious. 

The summer at Henley Harbor was a very backward 
one ; the salmon had not yet appeared at the mouths of 
the bays and rivers ; nor had the cod and their natural 
food, the capelin, moved in from the deep water. The 
enormous extent of fioe-ice which skirted the coast had 
lowered the temperature of the sea ; at the same time 
the ice-fields had prevented any icebergs from entering 
the Strait. The prevailing winds were cold and easterly ; 
the cold climate, the strong tides and the three-knot 
Labrador current passing around the cape into and 
down the Strait of Belle Isle render navigation here 
uncertain and dans'erous. 

June 27. The light southeasterly wind brought into 
the Strait the fog which had lain all the day previous 
outside of our harbor, and inland the clouds rested on 
the hills ; the day being dark and lowery. In the morn- 
ing some of us rowed three miles up to the head of Pitt's 
Arm, in Temple Bay, a deep fjord penetrating the high 
gneiss hills, into which pours, over a stony channel, a 
rapid trout stream about five yards across. The sandy 
beach was an ancient sea-bottom containing deep-sea 
shells.''^ On each side of the mouth of the brook were 
two terraces ; on the upper terrace, which was about 
forty feet above the sea, were two winter houses. I par- 
ticularly observed the appearance of these houses. One 
was 21X15 f^^t in size, the walls of upright, thick boards, 
the frame of poles ; the fiat roof was constructed of poles 

* The shells were Buccinum undatum, a variety with two ribs on the whorls; 
Saxicava riigosa, Mya tiddevallensis , Macoma proxima, Sernpes groenlandica, 
Natica clausa, of large size, and a branching ^oXyzoon, Celleporaria stcratlaris. 



A WINTER HOUSE. 12$ 

placed near together and covered with birch and hemlock 
bark, the strips, which were a foot wide, being placed 
crosswise; the eaves were scarcely five feet above the 
ground, and the floor was in part of boards and in part of 
turf. The door, hung on iron hinges, and closed with a 
wooden latch and string, was only four and a half feet 
high, and there was a single window, 16x15 inches. 
Within were three beds and a settle. The lumber for 
these shanties had evidently, by the piles of sawdust near 
by, been sawn upon the spot and taken from the Labra- 
dorian forest of firs near at hand, which measured twelve 
inches through at the butt, and were about twenty feet 
high. In their branches a robin and a sparrow were flit- 
ting about. The willow bushes were here five feet 
in height. On the sides of the sandy terraces were 
blackberry and raspberry bushes, and currants, shadber- 
ries, and golden thread just in blossom, while the alders 
were still in flower. 

I dredged in water about fift}^ fathoms deep, in 
Chateau Bay, bringing up, among molluscs, fine large 
Leda permUa, Astarte banksii, Lyonsia arenosa, Car- 
diutn islandicum ; rare sandstars, and young and old 
arctic crabs {Chion(Ecetes opilid). 

The 28th was almost wintry in its cold, changeable 
weather. A northeast storm raged, with a few drops of 
rain and a little snow in the forenoon, while after dinner 
there was a thick snow-storm, the hill-tops being whit- 
ened with snow for several hours, which, however, disap- 
peared by the evening. The water in the harbor was 
intensely cold, and the Mertensia and Clione, those 
beautiful creatures of the icy seas, abounded. 

The forenoon was spent in examining the trap rocks 



126 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

on the harbor side of Henley Island, and in shore-col- 
lecting. The rock-weeds or fuci do not grow luxuriantly 
on the coast of Labrador, but are stunted and dwarfed, 
like their more highly-born relatives of the vegetable 
kingdom ashore. Below tide-mark, however, though 
the tide on the Labrador coast rises and falls only two 
or three feet, the Devil's Apron or Laminaria is seen, 
but not so common and large as on the coast of Maine. 
Life between tide-marks is scanty compared with the 
New England coast. We never detected the common 
whelk that gives the purple dye {Purpura lapillus) ; 
but the two Littorinas {L. rudis, less commonly L. lit- 
toralis) were common ; these are circumpolar forms, 
abounding at the water's edge at Greenland. 

In this region scarcely a sea-bird was to be seen, and 
rarely even a gull ; but on one occasion three ducks, 
while a lonely raven flew about the cliff. Insect life 
was scanty, and with the animals and plants showed 
in its appearance a strange intermixture of what at 
home would have been characteristic of early April and 
late May. Frogs are seen here, we were told : in the 
garden the turnips were just up. 

Thirty ^^years ago there was but a single house at 
Henley Harbor, and none at Red Bay, where now there 
are thirty. The fish and birds here, meanwhile, have 
vastly decreased in numbers. The fish are principally 
cod, salmon, and herring. Old Captain French, our 
pilot, never saw a hake on the Labrador coast, and only 
two haddock, though both , kinds are abundant and 
troublesome to cod fishermen at Bay Chaleur, on the 
New Brunswick shore. 

Detained another day by head-winds and rain in the 



DREDGING. 12/ 

early part of the day, the wind in the evening hauled 
around to the S. W., giving us a fine evening sky. I 
dredged in the morning in the rain over the side of the 
vessel in four fathoms, the bottom rich in the red sea- 
weed {Ptilotd), the Desmarestia, and the sea-colander 
(Agarum turneri), and besides a portly queer-spined 
amphipod {Ainphithonotus cataphractzts), which carried 
its brood of young, also bristling with spines, a fine large 
Crangon boreas with other bright red shrimps came up. 




NEBALIA BIPES. (Enlarged six times.) 

In^the afternoon we sailed out two or three miles to the 
mouth of the harbor, and dredged in from ten to twenty 
fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom, evidently the contin- 
uation of the beach, and showing that the land was for- 
merly at least from one hundred to three hundred feet 
higher than at present ; besides Lyonsia arenosa, Kenne- 
rliaglacialis, and other shells and crustaceans, the interest- 
ing iV<?<5«/m bzpes\N2iS taken: it was also found in as shal- 
low water as four fathoms. This form is less than half an 
inch in length and is found throughout the Arctic Ocean, 
is common on the coast of Norway, and its family is now 



128 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

regarded as the sole existing type of a distinct order 
{Phyllocarida), whose gigantic fossil prototypes, some of 
them nearly two feet in length, occur in the palaeozoic 
rocks in America and Europe. 

The next day also we were wind-bound, but the gale 
was from the southwest; the wind blew very fresh, hav- 
ing a good sweep over the Gulf, the breakers ran high, 
as nearly all the harbors in Southern Labrador, i.e., south 
and wast of Belle Isle, are exposed to gales from this 
direction. We put out our kedge anchor, and fre- 
quently had to haul in a part of the cable to keep the 
vessel off the rocks. We should have put out to sea 
and taken advantage of the gale to go on our course up 
the coast, but were afraid of running upon a sunken 
rock at the mouth of the "tickle" or narrow passage 
forming our harbor. 

A part of the day was spent about and upon the 
Devil's Dining Table. This is a mass of columnar basalt, 
which has been described by Lt. Baddely in the Transac- 
tions of the Literary and, Historical Society of Quebec 
for 1829. The height of the rock above the sea is 225 
feet, to the base of the pillars of basalt 180 feet; the 
height of the columns themselves being 25 feet. The 
columns are quite regularly prismatic and of nearly the 
same size and nature as those of the Giant's Causeway. 

Ascending the terrace, carpeted with the mountain 
trident, I climbed up the cliff over the basaltic steps, 
by the only means of ascent situated on the eastern side, 
where the columns had been worn away by a little 
stream, on top of the flat table, which was 125 paces 
broad at the widest part. The ends of the prismatic 
columns occasionally protruded through the dense 



TERRACED BEACHES, 1 29 

matted covering of curlew-berry or Empetrum. The 
air wa's cold, chilly, reeking with the sea-drift, and the 
gale buffeted my face as if a demon were trying to throw 
me over the cliff, down to the sea-margin of former days. 

From the summit of the table the view was an inter- 
esting one, though the atmosphere was very hazy. Belle 
Isle was shut out of sight by a thin bank of fog or thick- 
ened vapor which lay on the sea to the eastward. A few 
miles up the shore was another cliff of basaltic columns, 
the bases of the pillars wrapped in snow. There are in 
this bay eleven sea-terraces which mark the former levels 
of the sea, eight of which could be seen from the top of 
this rock. On the west side the terraces slope towards 
the north, while on Castle Island they slope towards the 
southwest. The most distinct example of these terraced 
sea-beaches lay at our feet, forming the western shore ot 
Henley Island (on which the Devil's Dining Table is 
situated). This magnificent beach rises i8o feet above 
the sea-level, and when the sea covered it the waves 
washed the base of the basaltic pillars, as indicated by 
the debris of broken columns forming the talus at the 
foot of the cliff on which I stood. This beach is com- 
posed of three terraces, and the two lower ones widen 
out into delta-like expansions on the northwest end of 
the island, which are free from the usual covering of moss 
and curlew-berry, and are so distinctly marked with 
windrows of pebbles and gravel that it would seem as 
if they had been but yesterday thrown up by the waves, 

Greville's Fort*, as we may name it, the ruins of which 



* According to a writer in Harper's Magazine for May, 1864, who describes 
this fort and gives a plan of it, the fortifications were, supposed to have been 



I30 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

are quite distinct, was built on a broad terrace not far 
above the sea. On the mainland, north a little east, are 
three beaches with two terraces, which were beautifully 
marked, and corresponded with the two lower terraces 
at our feet, though covered with the rich deep green 
of the Empetrum leaves. Pitt's Arm and Chateau Bay 
are also terraced, the beaches themselves of unequal size 
and height, but the terraces, as we should expect, are of 
even height throughout, as they mark the former level 
of the sea. One of the beaches on Chateau Bay was 
remarkably steep, composed of large, sea-worn bowlders, 
and overhanging like a precipice the winter houses below. 
Indeed, all along the Strait of Belle Isle from the Meca- 
tinas to this point, wherever there is sand, gravel, or 
bowlders, the sea has, when at higher levels, rearranged 
and sorted them into terraced beaches or sea-margins. 
The future geologist who visits this coast will have an 
interesting task in measuring the heights of these ter- 
races and comparing them with those of Northern Lab- 
rador, of Arctic America, of Greenland, and northern 
Europe. These beaches are also seen in inland river- 
courses, and by every pond and lake ; they are not, as 
along the coast of Maine and Massachusetts, concealed 
by vegetation, bushes or forest growths ; but here, owing 
to the absence of bushes and trees, they were as distinct 
as if the Labrador peninsula had been upheaved but a 
year ago. Darwin has studied the formation of the ter- 
races along the coast of South America, where the ele- 
vating forces were undoubtedly volcanic, but the nature 
of the causes which in the northern hemisphere have re- 
constructed by the French Canadians, by whom it was abandoned in 1753 ; 
another author states that it was built by the Acadians. 



TERRACED BEACHES. 13I 

suited in the secular elevations and depressions of the 
land, such as took place during and after the glacial pe- 
riod, is purely conjectural, and belongs to the domain of 
theoretical geology. To study the causes we must first 
learn the facts, hence the careful examination of the os- 
cillations of the eastern coast of America from Aspin- 
wall to high polar latitudes is of the first importance. 
The measurement and comparison of the ancient sea- 
beaches on a coast like that of Labrador and Arctic 
America, where they are so easily perceived, will well 
repay the labor and time involved. 

Robert Chambers's interesting work on the ancient 
sea-margins of Norway and Sweden gives valuable data 
for comparison with those of the opposite coast of Lab- 
rador, and from the rough observations which have been 
made it would seem that the oscillations were about the 
same, both in height above the sea, and in time, on each 
side of the North Atlantic. I have also seen well- 
marked terraces in Puget Sound which are beautifully 
marked, and these should be carefully measured and 
compared in height with those in the arctic region and 
Labrador. It was with no little interest that we ob- 
served the old beaches on the Labrador coast, and we 
shall note their occurrence in the following pages wher- 
ever seen. 

We remained on the top of the Devil's Dining Table 
until the sun had set and the darkness began to creep 
over the scene below. Whether his Satanic Majesty 
was concerned in the transformation which then came 
over the scene we will not undertake to say, but as the 
sun went down the rocks and hills beneath seemed to 
diminish in height ; an undefined, subtle, neutral tint 



132 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR, 

spread over the landscape ; a brownish haze due to the 
vapor in the air came in from the sea and settled over the 
hills far and near, and as the twilight came on the hills 
were still more dwarfed in size, when the chill southwest 
wind from the Gulf, the coldest that blows over this ex- 
posed point, sent us back to our vessel, where the ther- 
mometer at 8 o'clock in the evening was 44° F. 

The fishing-hamlet of Henley Harbor consists of a 
few dwelling-houses, some of them inhabited during the 
winter, with fiish-houses and light wharves here called 
" stages." The winter houses are built of thick boards, 
with flat tarred roofs, the sides of the houses being well 
battened. The domestic animal here is the dog, New- 
foundlanders — seven of them at one house — brought up 
by the fishermen for the summer : there were no Eskimo 
dogs or Eskimos at this point, though in the last century 
they here congregated by hundreds. The fish-houses 
were rude structures of one low shed, roofed with turf 
and built on piles, reminding us sortiewhat of pictures 
of the ancient pile-dwellings of prehistoric Switzerland. 

The fisherman's sail-boat is a ponderous, clumsy affair 
called a " jack." It is twenty-five or thirty feet long, 
with not much breadth of beam, rudely built, with short 
masts, and small sails stained red or black, or with both 
colors ; the oars are of spruce, and very large and heavy, 
and the stern of the boat is provided with two stakes, 
such as whalemen use for sculling. 

I interviewed a Mr. Stone, one of the settlers, regard- 
ing the fisheries and hunting at this point, and he gave 
me the following facts : At the height of the herring 
fishery in August — and it should be borne in mind that 
this fish is only a summer visitant, not spawning on the 



THE FISHERIES. 133 

Labrador coast, but passing up, as Hind in his work on 
tiie Labrador peninsula states, as far as Hudson's Strait 
— Stone has caught 200 barrels in a season. He has to 
pay twelve barrels for a hogshead of salt, the price of 
which is now (1864) very high. He secures 800 quin- 
tals of fish at i8i-. a quintal, which amounts to £']20 for 
a successful season's work. He can cure the fish on this 
coast during the short summer, and is now building a 
shed for this purpose. 

Of salmon 1 80 quintals are taken in a good season ; they 
are pickled and sell at the rate of $5.00 a quintal (112 
lbs.), so that he would realize about $900 from this fish- 
ery ; but considering that he had a family of ten chil- 
dren, it is not probable that on the average he more 
than comfortably supports his family, and in many sum- 
mers the fisheries on this desolate coast are a failure. 
And to show what little chance there is to retrieve his 
fortunes by the products of the winter's hunting, he told 
me that last winter nothing was shot about Chateau Bay 
from Christmas until the first of February. During the 
entire winter but a single partridge was shot, while at 
the same time they were very abundant at Blanc Sablon, 
showing that possibly these birds are somewhat migra- 
tory, going in flocks from one point to another in search 
of food. There are now neither beaver nor otter, nor 
silver nor black foxes to be had ; only two or three 
wolves were shot, and two deer. When I asked him 
what the people would do if the hunting and fishing con- 
tinued to fall off, he replied hopefully, and in his fisher- 
man's dialect, *'Oh, we'll have a spurt by and by." He 
added that the S.W. wind was in summer "the coldest 
wind that blows." Winter comes on in November; by 



134 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 



the loth to the 20th of this month the lakes are all 
frozen over, and by the 20th the harbor is frozen far out 
into the Strait, while in winter they can go out in 
sledges on the ice to Belle Isle. 

The people here in general were well-mannered, though 
rough and out-spoken, asking freely of our stores, and 
commenting as freely on what they considered poor 
returns in trade. 

To return to the Devil's Dining Table, whose geology 
is interesting : it is a high ovate mass with vertical sides 
and a flat top, which slightly inclines towards the south- 
west, and consists of two layers, showing that the rock 
is the remains of two separate eruptions, the lower con- 
sisting of regular prismatic five-sided columns, each 
about two feet in diameter, fluted on the sides and curi- 
ously worn by transverse impressed lines. The basaltic 
mass rests upon the upturned edges of strata of Lauren- 
Ian gneiss which have been penetrated by dikes of sye- 
ite. North of the basaltic cap, the underlying rocks 




CASTLE ISLAND FROM THE WEST ; a, RED SYENITE ; b, GNEISS ; C, BASALT (THE 

devil's dining-table) ; d, raised beach. 

are least disturbed, being reddish gneiss-like or foliated 
syenite, crumbling and quite fissile, dipping at an angle 
of 50° south, 25° east; just beyond, this reddish rock 
runs into the usual dark Laurentian gneiss of the region. 
Upon submitting a specimen of the basalt to Mr. J. S. 
Diller, lithologist of the U. S. Geological Survey, he tells 
me that it is a doleritic basalt. 

At the southeast end of the island, along the shore 



o S 







• CASTLE ISLAND. 1 35 

looking out towards Belle Isle, the flesh-colored syenitic 
rocks present a rough and broken front to the ceaseless 
swell of the Atlantic, rising from seventy-five to a hun- 
dred feet above the waves, the beetling crags broken and 
pierced by deep ocean caves ; with jutting headlands and 
little pebbly beaches nestling between them — all the 
characteristic scenic features of this syenite, whether at 
Nahant, or Mt. Desert, or on the Labrador coast. 

The southern end of Castle Island repeats the geology 
and scenery of Henley Island; but a little farther down, 
away from the sea-cliffs, the syenite and gneiss meet, and 
seemed splashed together, like two masses of paste or 
dough which has been stirred up and baked. In places, 
both rocks were interstratified, dipping north and south 
in much disturbed strata, but with a general inclination 
towards the north. 

The first of July saw us released from our prison ; the 
day was clear and delightful, and a light southwesterly 
breeze bore us along a remarkably bold and picturesque 
coast. About two miles from our harbor is another trap 
overflow capping and, at the southwest end, concealing 
from view the syenitic base ; at the northern end the 
basalt is columnar. 

* We soon came up to our first iceberg, a magnificent 
pyramid of ice perhaps a hundred and fifty feet high, 
white as Carrara marble, smooth, as if fresh snow had 
fallen on it during the past night, lending it a virgin 
whiteness, here and there brought more clearly into re- 
lief by the subtle azure blue reflected from the sea. 
Across its base ran several suggestive cracks, and though 
we sailed within two hundred yards of it, it was rather 
risky, and we remembered Scoresby's stories of the dis- 



136 A SUMMER'S CRUISK TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

asters attending the overturning and breaking of floating 
bergs. Captain Handy, whose b'fe-long experience as a 
whaler in arctic regions made him a good judge, re- 
marks as we are passing that a berg will not usually injure 
a vessel unless a piece of ice falls upon it, but that the 
waves will swamp a boat. At Resolution Island he 
rowed past an immense berg, so that it could almost be 
touched from the boat, saying to himself, " It won't last 
three weeks ;" he had gone scarcely three ship's lengths, 
when, with a report like the discharge of a park of artil- 
lery, it burst into a thousand pieces, many still forming 
large bergs ; the boat was put head-to, and nearly filled 
with water, but there was no further danger. 

Off Cape Charles the coast grows more broken and 
hummocky, more so than west of Chateau Bay. This is 
partly owing to the fact that we look directly up into the 
fjords and bays, and that the headlands run out towards 
us. We pass Battle Island, a comparatively low island, 




A, CAPE CHARLES, 654 FT. B, HARE ISLAND; ENTRANCE TO CAPE CHARLES 
HARBOR. C, CHARLES BAY. 

with the " ice-loom " or mirage resting over it. We were 
glad to pass Battle Island Harbor, which has a bad repu- 
tation, or, to use an Anglicism, is a "nasty" place. The 
entrance is very sinuous, the turns short, and the vessel 
must answer her rudder quickly when going in. Our 
fishermen enter it late in the season, as " it is a place 
that holds fish late." Perhaps half of the harbors here 
are unknown, and the fishermen seldom have occasion 
to enter the innermost ones. 



THE ICE-PACK AND ICE-BLINK. 



137 



The ice-pack which we were soon to encounter lay 
north and east of us, with the " ice-blink " over it. We 
pass Outer Battle Island, and the "Two Sisters," bare, 
low islands of nearly white gneiss rock. We now sail 
into the ice-pack, and are gradually surrounded by floes, 

A 




though they are not near enough to impede our progress. 
The shore of Caribou Island— for there are two of this 
name on the coast — is of a singular pale gray shade from 
top to bottom. The people ashore, struck by our model 
and spars, so unlike the other craft on this coast, set the 
British flag to ascertain our nationality. 



CARIBOU ISLAND, BEARING TWO MILES WES'J'. 

We pass St. Lewis Bay, a large broad indentation, 
with its north shore evidently syenitic, as the sea-wall is 
high, and the rocks rough and fissured, and more broken 
than lower down ; the headlands of syenite probably ex- 
tend out from the gneiss mainland. 

The ice-floes become larger and more hummocky than 
any we have seen before. A humpback whale now pre- 




CARIBOU ISLAND, BEARING WEST. 



sents a broadside view of himself, with his angular hump, 
small fin, and as he "sounds," reveals the pale underside 
of his tail and flukes. 



138 



A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 



At Spear Point the outline of the coast is very rough ; 
at the entrance to Spear Harbor, which is a shallow bight, 
there is a high, sugar-loaf island ; two black-sailed " jacks " 
are entering it. Cape St. Francis is a bold, syenitic head- 
land. Over Square Island, which now comes in sight, 
being fifteen miles ahead, there is a fine mirage, with 
castle-like, shadowy forms resting on the rock. We are 
now sailing between the ice-pack and the shore, one 
nearly as solid in appearance as the other. The wind is 
still off shore, but should it change to the eastward the 
ice would come in upon us and choke up the bays and 
harbors. Behind us is a pale bluish haze which passes 
into a well-marked mirage, and as we sail on it raises the 
higher points of the land beneath and expands above 
with weird, strange effects. Beyond us the mirage mag- 
nifies the larger floes into huge bergs. 




NORTH SIDE OF FISHING SHIP HARBOR. 



In St. Francis Harbor is a " room " and a " look-out "" 
house ; a small bay beyond appears to be filled with ice. 
The coast at Fishing Ship Harbor is unusually rough 
and broken, like the waves of a chop-sea ; and there ap- 
peared to be two terraces at this point, the upper one 
very high, but whether of gravel or of rock was difficult 
to distinguish. The wind now become very changeable 
and baffling, veering from one point to another ; and our 
progress was compared by the Captain to sailing up 
the Potomac. Passing by perpendicular sea-cliffs, and a 



|occasional|harbor. 



139 



bold headland on which are dead spruce trees, the rock 
on the north side of Occasional Harbor changes its char- 




[OCCASIONAL HARBOR.f 

acter, becoming a gray, Labradoritic syenite, like what 
we afterwards found on Square Island. j. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

III. FROM CAPE ST. MICHAEL TO HOPEDALE. 

Cape St. Michael rises from the sea in the boldest, 
most vertical cliffs we had yet seen ; they are perhaps 
from two to three hundred feet high and pierced by 
five caves, one very large and deep, and another oven- 
like. In one of the bights indenting this promontory 
there are four irregular but well-marked rock-terraces in 
the gneiss cliffs. On a following headland the syenite 
is seen to be interstratified with much-distorted gneiss 
strata, and penetrated by a deep fissure with remarkably 
fresh and angular sides. At the head of the bight is 
quite a forest of spruce. We are now off St. Michael's 
Bay, at the mouth of which is Square Island, with Sugar 
Loaf Island just beyond, and now the contours of the 
land-surface again begin to be rough and broken. 

We run in here to make a harbor, and as we enter it 
a pleasant breeze blows off shore ; it is refreshing in its 
warmth and in the balsamic flavor of the spruce and 
firs of the interior. We are now in a completely land- 
locked little box of a harbor in Square Island, the three 
"tickles" or narrow passages leading into it not in sight 
from where we were to lie moored. 

While our vessel, which had come in by the wrong 
tickle, was, by a process of towing, and at times by 

taking advantage of slight puffs of mind, slowly work- 

140 



SQUARE ISLAND HARBOR. 14I 

ing into her deep little harbor, where she anchored in 
thirteen fathoms, some of us landed, and what a scene 
lay before us ! On every square rod of flat rock on the 
steep sides of the harbor was a Newfoundlander's "tilt" 
or summer house. The sides made of logs or plank, the 
roof of turf, a square chimney of wood and mud, the 
four corner-posts projecting above. They were scattered 
about on the rocks like bee-hives, under the shelter of 
the cliffs on a low promontory, while the landing-places 
or " stages" were supported on long poles. 

In the miniature garden-lots some of the children 
were turning the sod with rude spades, others were 
bringing soil from the naked rocks about into protected 
places where they were to attempt the cultivation of a 
few turnips and cabbages. On the shores of the harbor 
was a narrow margin of grass enriched by the drippings 
of years from the fish-flakes which, supported on stakes 
like those on the Maine coast, ran down in parallel rows 
to near the water's edge, where were ground-flakes, or 
floors of poles lying on the ground. The sides of the tilt 
were here and there ornamented with a sealskin tacked 
against the wall. The houses of the "long-shore-men," 
or those of the permanent residents, were clapboarded 
and a little better looking than the tilts. It was warm 
and truly delightful ashore, the wind coming from over 
the hills and mosses ; the thermometer was 70° F., and 
we learned that for two days it had been unusually 
warm and pleasant. 

The insects formed an assemblage which in northern 
New England would be regarded as a mixture of April 
and early June forms, Corethra and Tanapus, two gnats, 
which in New England are April forms, mingled with 



142 1 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

saw-flies which appear with us early in June. The leaf- 
rolling moths had not yet appeared ; a few bumble-bees 
were humming their familiar tune, but, as we thought, in 
a subdued minor key. 

Just before sunset we climbed a steep round hill, rising 
perhaps 500 to 800 feet above the harbor, and what a 
strange, peculiar scene was spread out before us ! Far 
inland to the westward there was a fire in the woods, 
and the smoke filled the air towards the interior and was 
carried far seaward ; the sunlight passing through the 
smoke gave a strange appearance to the glowing western 
sky, the transformed light falling bronzed and red upon 
the broad bay dotted with " skiers," or small low islets ; 
and tinging the distant hills, one of which, a mountain 
mass of gneiss, seemed to be over a thousand feet high. 

In the evening it grew cool and damp : a large cake 
of floe-ice higher than the rail of our vessel floated down 
upon us and stranded on the shore. All through the 
night there was a 'continual sound of running water 
dripping in streams from its under side, the gurgling and 
trickling keeping one awake. 

The next day was cloudy, with, a southeast wind, so 
that we could not venture^out of our harbor. I went 
with a party of trout fishers from our vessel to a chain 
of lakes containing, besides a few small trout, eels^^and 
sticklebacks. The insects were more abundant in the 
sheltered valleys than along the shore. In the shallow 
ponds were chrysalids of the stone-flies and case-worms, 
the latter having been found in the larval condition at 
the Mecatinas. There were also pupal ' dragon-flies, 
and under the moss and green herbs on the side of a 



GEOLOGY OF SQUARE ISLAND. 143 

little rill, earthworms, groundbeetles, cutworms, and 
the maggots of the crane-fly. 

Here mingled with an Empetrum-like plant was the 
Andromeda polifolia, with bumble-bees probing its deep 
flowers ; sedges were in flower, one like our Carex penn- 
sylvanica and perhaps representing it in the Labrador 
flora ; the leaves of the hackmatack or larch were half 
an inch long, but the birches and mountain-ash were 
not yet fully leaved out ; blue and white violets were 
sprinkled among the low sedges, while the flowers of 
the cloud-berry were now dropping off. The Viburnum 
lantanoides was scarcely full-leaved ; the bunch-berry 
{Cornus Canadensis) was either in bud or else with 
small green flowers. The gold-thread, or Coptis, was in 
full flower ; the fire-weed (^Epilobium augustifolium) 
was but six inches high, the buds not yet apparent. 

Robins were singing in the old familiar way, and the 
white-crowned sparrow was flitting about as if thor- 
oughly at home and rather enjoying the desolateness of 
the scenery. 

The geology of Square Island harbor is varied by the 
presence of a peculiar dark syenite due to the labrador- 
ite which replaces the flesh-colored feldspar of the syen- 
ite to the southward, while there are large masses of 
dark green actinolite with a little quartz, and some iron 
pyrites. This peculiar eruptive rock is weathered into 
high rounded conical sugar-loaf hills, which lends a 
peculiar feature to the scenery of the coast. At certain 
points this rock passes into a finely-grained gneiss, with 
the scenic features of that rock, but yet combined with 
an added feature due to its granitoid character ; the 
rock crumbles rather easily, and on the shores of the 



144 A summer's CmjISE to northern LABRADOR. 

harbor and lakes, blocks of all sizes, angular or weather- 
worn, fall down, disrupted by the frost. No boulders, 
i.e. travelled rocks, were to be seen. The masses of 
labradorite are translucent and opalescent, but still not 
of the precious variety, of which, however, I afterward 
purchased fine specimens from the Moravian missionaries 
at Hopedale. No drift or glacial scratches were to be 
seen about here, and none had yet been observed on the 
coast, though they were of course always in my thoughts, 
and I was disappointed at not finding any, attributing 
their absence to the rapid weathering of the rocks on 
this coast. 

The deep broad bay at whose northern entrance 
Square Island is situated must have been filled with 
glacial ice, as the skiers or low islets of gneiss dotting its 
surface had evidently been ground down and moulded 
into their present forms by land ice. 

The rock terraces observable here were interesting ; 
they were ten or twenty feet high, with the vegetation 
growing at the foot of the little vertical precipices. On 
their upper third the hills about oyr harbor were bare, 
where in similar situations in the Strait of Belle Isle the 
rocks would be covered with a thick and matted growth 
of Empetrum and reindeer moss. The steep precipitous 
sides of the hills facing the harbor plunge naked and 
dark into the water, and from their summits we can look 
directly down upon the decks of the vessels at anchor, 
overlooking the " tilts" and "stages" on shore. 

In the afternoon the vicissitudes of a dredger in such 
a harbor as this were well illustrated. I put my dredge 
down at the depth of thirty fathoms at the mouth of a 
" tickle," and the results were plenty of a little snail 



THE SEAL FISHERY. 1 45 

{^Margarita cinereci), the dead shells tenanted by little 
hermit-crabs ; the two varieties of Mya truncata, two 
beautiful ten-armed starfishes {Solaster papposa), beau- 
tifully roseate in the centre, as well as at the middle and 
tips of the fingers ; the omnipresent knotted sand-star 
{Ophioglypha nodosa) with fine gray and red shrimps, 
and mingled with the deep-water forms were two littoral 
species, the common edible mussel and the Littorina 
rudis. Another hard pull — and dredging in thirty 
fathoms b}'- hand, in these days of donke}^ engines and 
steamers, with all the paraphernalia of the modern 
dredge, is no fun — over a rocky bottom and not a thing 
in the dredge was a disappointment, while the third 
pull off a steep precipice brought up the dredge filled 
to the brim with a soft ooze, containino- only two or 
three worms and a few dead shells. 

On Sunday, the 3d, services were conducted by Rev. 
David A. Wasson, one of our party. About twenty of 
the fishermen came aboard, and after the meeting we 
found them very, communicative, the sole topic of con- 
versation, that which is the staple talk on these shores, 
being the fisheries, both of the cod and seal. One sealer 
of 120 tons during a cruise of three months laid in a 
cargo of 148 tons of seal's fat obtained from 4700 seals. 
Last year (1863) twenty to thirty sealing-vessels were 
lost in Green Bav, and six hundred men were oblisfed 
to abandon their vessels and walk home, "with nothinaf 
but their boots," on the ice which was packed in towards^ 
the shore. A few remained aboard. March was an open 
month, while April was cold and frosty; "the ice was 
packed in 25 or 30 feet, making it bad for the sealers." 

On inquiring of an old Newfoundlander why they 



146 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

had been driven off of their own fishing-grounds and 
obliged to spend the season on this coast, he replied, 
'*Oh, it was the French. Our fishermen have been on 
this coast for seventy years. It was after the treaty 
that the French began to fish from Cape St. John 
around to Cape Ray, and for forty-six years we have 
come up here in this way. By this treaty the French 
were not allowed to take anything away from the shore, 
nor to cut timber above a certain size, and were not, 
and still are not allowed to reside on the island of New- 
foundland. They leave from fifty to seventy men to 
take care of the fishing establishments or ' rooms, ' an 
officer being set over every ten men to keep them in 
subordination, while a doctor is stationed at each ' room. 
The men live like dogs, cooking out of doors ; they are 
allowed the first catch of fish for themselves. They 
cook Sundays — after early morning prayers — and work 
the rest of the day." It is needless to add that the French 
are looked upon as intruders by the English settlers. 

The Newfoundlanders themselves, at least the poorer 
families, are obliged to fish on credit, running in debt 
for their outfit, which is worth ^190, including salt. 
When the season is over and the fish is sold, they may 
clear £1$, as they often obtain 350 quintals of fish. 
The "longshoremen," of whom there are here seven 
families, are sadly improvident, often giving up fishing 
towards the last of the season and idling ; hence as the 
result, when the traders have failed them, they are re- 
duced, as happened last winter, to actual starvation. 
Owing to the lack of fresh meat and vegetables they are 
afflicted with the scurvy. One man thus suffering 
showed me one of his legs, which was swollen nearly 



THE WALRUS. I47 

twice the size of the well one, and covered with purple 
spots. I asked them how they spent their time in the 
winter, and they said : " Oh, we get a stick of firewood " 
— and it is not much more. But a single deer was shot 
here last winter by these thriftless people, while the Es- 
kimo, who came down from " the nor'ard " in their dog- 
sledges, shot fifteen. 

The walrus at times appears as far south as this harbor, 
one having been shot about fifteen years ago. It evi- 
dently made an impression on the minds of the "long- 
shoremen," as the circumstances of its appearance were 
treasured up for years after. It lifted its head above the 
water near a boat with a single man in it, who was nearly 
frightened out of his wits, as he " thought it was the 
devil." His web-footed majesty sank beneath the waves 
to reappear to the same man three-quarters of a mile 
away, who was not too much terrified to throw as a 
peace-offering to the monster a herring, which it swal- 
lowed and then disappeared. 

By daylight this morning the ice began to come into 
our sniig little harbor, brought in by an east wind ; it 
drifted in during the day, completely surrounding the few 
vessels at anchor ; though it was a warm, pleasant day, 
and the thermometer was 70° at noon, by night it grew 
cold, reaching 39°. The ice often comes in through the 
narrow "tickles," and becoming imprisoned, remains 
until a strong west wind blows it out. In this way large 
icebergs frequently come in, as the tickles are about thirty 
fathoms deep, there being no friendly bars at the en- 
trance to detain these unwelcome visitors. On one oc- 
casion, a Saturday night, as a man told me, an iceberg " as 
tall as a steeple" floated in as if to make a safe harbor, 



148 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

and became anchored within fifty yards of his "stage." 
Just after he and his family had gone to bed, the berg 
broke to pieces — " foundered " — and nearly swamped his 
boat, but did not carry away his stage, which was built 
upon a rock, though the waves washed a row of punch- 
eons off from a neighbor's stage and entered the house, 
driving out the occupants. 

Of the personal appearance and habits of the majority 
of the summer residents there is not much to be said. 
Living in dirty, forlorn tilts, smoked and begrimed with 
dirt, the occupants in some cases thoroughly harmonize 
with their surroundings : their features and hands are 
smoked as dark as the herring they eat, and their rough 
life is more or less demoralizing ; but certainly law and 
order are well maintained on the cOast, and no cases of 
immorality came to our ears. 

The Fourth of July saw us still ice-bound. We could 
easily walk ashore over the floe-ice ; some of the' floes 
were higher than our vessel's rail, it being next to impos- 
sible to force our boat through the too narrow "leads' 
between the cakes. Our surroundings were thoroughly 
arctic ; the harbor choked with ice-cakes, while the high, 
dreary cliffs, rising on every side, made the outlook so 
polar and frigid that only a live white bear in the fore- 
ground was needed to enhance the resemblance. 

This glorious day was celebrated by the imprisoned 
party as best they could. At nine o'clock in the morn- 
ing a salute was fired from twenty-four gun-barrels, the 
lararest number we could muster. The exercises of the 
forenoon consisted of a prayer by Rev. Mr. Wasson, and 
an oration by a member of the legal profession, Mr. Ham, 
followed by the John Brown song. For our dinner we 



CELEBRATION OF THE FOURTH OF JULY. 1 49 

had a fresh salmon and canned peas, excellent after- 
courses, washed down with champagne brought out 
with especial reference to the occasion by Mr. Phoenix. 
The evening was thick and foggy, and at sunset the 
American flag was again saluted and cheered, and the 
ship's bell rung, due response being made by the people 
ashore and by the crews of 'the other vessels, while the 
captain of one of the Newfoundland vessels politely 
sent up rockets, Roman candles, and burned Drum- 
mond lights. The effect of the fire-works in the fog and 
mist, the glare reflected from the ice into the sky and 
upon the surrounding cliffs, the cheers and shouts, which 
were prolonged to after eleven o'clock at night, all made 
a scene, we venture to say, never before witnessed by 
Labradorians. 

Before dinner a party was equipped and armed to the 
teeth to go on land and look up a black bear which was 
seen ashore yesterday. I joined them with my insect-net. 
We pushed and shoved through the ice, at times haul- 
ing the boat over some refractory floe. A cloudy, misty 
day is anywhere unfavorable to insect life, but on this 
coast scarcely an insect is then to be seen, so I turned 
my attention to the tilts and jacks. A raccoon's skin 
was shown us, and we were told that four or five years 
since two white-bear cubs were captured near here and 
carried into St. John's, while a large white or " water 
bear" was shot last week up at Tub Island. This proved 
not to be a fish story, as Mr. Bradford afterwards secured 
there a good skin which was destined to adorn his New 
York studio on Tenth Street. A white bear's skin with- 
out the head is worth more than that of a black bear, 
for which six dollars is asked. 



I50 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

The next two days were climatically repetitions of the 
Fourth, a light easterly wind holding the ice in the har- 
bor. Going ashore over the cakes, we spent the day in 
entomologizing, and here the first grasshopper occurred, 
found floating in the water of a pool ; at first I thought 
it was a wino"less form called Pezotettix, from the short- 
ness of its wing-covers, but it proved to be an allied 
winged form ; two other wingless specimens were the 
next day found on the hill-side ; a thousand-legs {yulus) 
also occurred under the leaves and sedges. 

The highest hill in sight from the deck of our vessel 
was measured by Captain Handy from sextant observa- 
tions, and found to be 397 feet above the harbor ; a hill 
behind it rose to a height of over 400 feet ; another 
higher hill, used as a lookout, was about 800 feet high ; 
the mountain across the bay must therefore be not less 
than 1,000 feet high, while those in the interior, near the 
head of the bay, seen from the lookout, were probably 
not less than 1,500 feet in height. Looking out to sea 
from this high elevation the ice was everywhere in view 
with leads between the floes, and here and there a vessel 
caught in them, besides two broad, massive bergs ap- 
parently forcing their way through the ice-field. On the 
top of this hill we were in a region of transported rocks, 
genuine ice-borne bowlders, which could be seen on all 
sides dotting the tops of the neighboring hills ; they were 
of all sizes, an occasional rocking-stone among them ; 
one huge rock was nearly forty feet long and fifteen feet 
high. Many were overgrown and partly concealed by 
the matted growth of the curlew berry ; bowlders are 
also seen scattered over the bottoms of the shallow 
ponds, and in the brooks and streams. They appear to 



FRESH-WATER SHELLS. 151 

have travelled but a short distance from their native 
rock, as they are mostly large and angular, though some 
are well rounded. The hill-tops, as well as the sides, 
have been moulded by ice, roches moutonees being as dis- 
tinctly marked here as in New England, and the ice 
must have moved from the north, a little west ; but owing 
to the weathering of the surface of the rocks in this 
severe climate, no grooves could here be found to 
determine the exact course of the ice. The ranges of 
hills, however, and the longer diameter of the ice all 
have a N.E. and S.W. course, while the bays and fjords 
ran in a N.W. and S.E. direction, and this was the 
course in general taken by the land-ice. 

Going ashore again after dinner and following up the 
chain of lakes, I saw a prostrate canoe or paper birch a 
foot in diameter, and another one, also lying down, but 
smaller, only eight inches thick — good-sized trees for 
Labrador: also spruce trees ten inches through. In the 
ponds the cow-lily was just beginning to bud, though 
not yet reaching' the surface; a little cyclas-like bivalve 
{Pisidium steenbuchii), hitherto only known to occur in 
Greenland, was common in the mud at the bottom of a 
brook, while a slug (^Li?nax agrestis) was found ashore, 
under a stone, just laying its pellucid eggs; and in an- 
other brook was found a fresh-water sponge. A robin's 
nest containing three eggs with young nearly ready to 
hatch was detected on the bough of a spruce, and it is 
most probable that this bird raises but a single brood of 
young on this coast. Under a hummock of moss and 
sedges lay concealed a dormouse's nest. The curlew-berry 
was still in blossom, its flowers like those of the blue- 
berry, but of a beautiful pale purple. About the inner- 



152 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

most lake were, besides spruce, balsam firs and larches, 
the latter six inches thick ; the Kalmia glauca, or arctic 
laurel, as it may be called, was just beginning to flower. 

The 6th closed cold and damp : the northeast wind had 
packed the ice in our harbor thicker than ever, while the 
thermometer went down to 38° F. The fishermen, how- 
ever, managed to seine a few cod and herring. 

The morning of the 7th was the coldest we had expe- 
rienced, as the ice formed around our vessel between the 
cakes of floe-ice. After a good deal of exertion a few 
of us managed, after much tugging and pushing and 
forcing the ice-cakes apart, to get ashore in a boat ; but 
we had, on returning, to leave our boat ashore and walk 
back to the vessel. Here I found, my fingers numbed 
with the cold, the caterpillar of ^xoh?i\)\j Arctiaquenselu 
on the larch, which also occurs on the Alps, the moun- 
tains of Norway, and in Greenland and Colorado. It 
was a truly mimetic or protective form, as on first sight 
it looked like a bunch of moss so common on these trees. 
At noon it began to rain, and a regular northeast storm 
set in. Through the next two days (the 8th and 9th) w^e 
were still ice- and wind-bound, with cold, rainy weather. 
Sunday the loth was a repetition of the three preceding, 
although part of the day the wind was from the south- 
west. The fishermen reported a fight outside of the 
harbor between a whale and a killer and sword-fish, in 
which the whale got worsted, turning exhausted upon 
his back. The night ended in rain, which continued 
through the next morning ; the wind was at first south, 
then southwest, and at night again returned to its fa- 
vorite quarter, the northeast, with very cold weather. 
During the day there were some strange cloud effects, the 



THE COD-FISHERY. 153 

higher belt of clouds moving from the southwest, while 
below the fog scudded in from the east. After supper a 
squall from the west struck us : this carried the ice off- 
shore some distance, but from the lookout we could see 
the ice-pack closely hugging the shore to the northward 
of our harbor, and we beheld a few icebergs, huge cubi- 
cal blocks, rising above the ice-pack. We hope to get 
out to-morrow, as several vessels have come in which 
left Henley Harbor on the day we did, and which have 
been ice-bound in Fox Harbor, just above us. 

The people complain of the lateness of the season : 
the ice holding so late and in such an immense and 
unusual quantity is, they say, " killing the cod-fishery." 
We had found a few days previously what we supposed 
to be young capelin an inch long, with the tail still heter- 
ocercal, and thev are now cominsr inshore to breed. This 
interesting little fish, so valuable as bait in fishing for 
cod, remains near the coast through the winter in deep 
water, and is often found in the bay. 

The ice having- temporarily left the harbor, we could 
again dredge, and we had excellent success; the number 
and variety of marine animals, all purely arctic in type, 
being very pronounced. 

Here, more abundantly than elsewhere, though in 
deep water, occurred large sea-anemones {Metridium 
marginahim) and gorgeous sea-pinks {Urticina crassi- 
cornis), with slashes of red on a flesh-colored ground, 
and as beautifully painted as any carnation, besides 
shrimps with not less delicate flesh-red and vermilion 
tints. The colors of arctic marine animals are some- 
times pale and lifeless, but more often of rich salmon and 
flesh tints ; passing into deep red. Why deep-sea forms 



154 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

when highly colored are always of some shade of red is 
not yet well understood, but such is the case with holo- 
thurians, starfish, sandstars, crabs, and shrimps, as well 
as polyps and molluscs, whether living at the depth of 
I GO or ],ooo fathoms. This evening a trader came into 
port, which had been in eleven harbors since leaving us 
at Salmon Bay. 

The 1 2th was another of the long, long, weary days 
of the fortnight spent in watching and waiting for our 
release from this now detestable harbor, more like a 
rocky cage than a haven of rest. I went a-dredging 
and lost my dredge at the first haul on a rocky bottom, 
which added to the aggravations of the weather, and 
left but one other for the rest of the summer's work. 

The bay was novy full of capelin ; cod were also be- 
ing netted as well as salmon, which is said to disappear 
from here about the 15th of August. Salmon, by the 
way, were here worth 40 cents apiece ; at Henley Harbor 
we paid fifty cents for one. The cod are now breeding, 
as the spawn is full and ripe, and their livers are poor 
and lean. Now the " stages " presented busy scenes, as 
there was a " spurt o' fishing " ; one day seven quintals of 
cod were pitched out of the boats upon the wharf ; here 
the men leave them, turning them. over to the tender 
mercies of their wives and sweethearts, and it is to be 
hoped that the gentler sex on this coast are not in other 
respects so fierce and sanguinary as when left alone with 
the cod. The "headers," in petticoats tucked up so as 
to show their homespun stockings and stout shoes, their 
sleeves rolled up and in their hand a formidable knife, 
in an instant seize the cod's lifeless corse, and with a 
dexterous stroke behead it ; the body is thrown to the 



THE FLOE-ICE. , 1 55 

" gutter ;" the woman or maiden thus styled slits up the 
belly, tears out, like an augur of old, the entrails, but 
doesn't stop to inspect them, throws the livers into a 
hogshead, and the disembowelled fish to the "splitter;" 
another girl or woman grown, known by wearing a mit- 
ten on the left hand, who attacks the fish on the reverse 
side from the "gutter," makes a deep cut along each 
side of the back-bone, dexterously but with her mittened 
sinistral hand shies that important part of the fish's 
skeleton into the harbor, while the fish, after receiving 
this threefold treatment, is emphatically slapped into a 
sled-barrow and carried to the other end of the low 
shed to be salted, when it is ready for the flakes. 

While on shore we saw at one of the houses a musk- 
rat's skin, which had a much better, finer fur than those 
at home. 

On the 1 2th the wind veered from the north to the 
northeast, and it lighted up so decidedly towards noon 
that we hoped to get to sea. After dinner, Mr. Brad- 
ford went out in the whale-boat to get a view of an ice- 
berg, which he sketched from afar off. It was sur- 
rounded bv cakes of floe-ice, which assumed a wonderful 
individuality. One in particular impressed itself on my 
memory : it was a lily done in ice, which nodded and 
swaj^ed to and fro in the gentle ocean swell like a 
veritable flower moved bv a summer's breeze ; another 
was like a woman's torso : and so passed in review a 
series of animal and plant-like forms of every conceiva- 
ble shape, while mingled with the white ice were smaller 
pieces of dark, colorless ice which may have been sev- 
ered from some arctic glacier. But before the artist's 
study was fairly made, the insidious northeastern breeze 



156 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

deployed a few skirmishers from the edge of the pack and 
soon brought the whole floe upon us. Down it came, 
borne by the wind and the Labrador current, at the rate 
of three or four miles an hour. It closed in at Cape 
Bluff to the north of us. We ran before the wind, soon 
leaving in the distance the twin bergs, with their myr- 
midons of the floe. On entering the tickle we found 
ourselves completely surrounded, well-nigh cut off from 
our harbor, but by dint of tacking and pushing the cakes 
to one side with our oars, and running over some smaller 
floes which gnashed and ground harshly on our boat's 
bottom, we got through just in time to escape being 
completely shut out. Not so, however, a boat's crew 
which had hurried out to pull up their salmon -nets, 
and who did not appear until long after we had boarded 
our vessel. 

Our box of a harbor was again jammed full of ice, 
eight vessels riding at their hawsers, all ice-bound. And 
now looking through the pellucid water between the 
cakes of ice, our old arctic friends the Mertensia and 
Clione, welled up from below, seeking the surface, as 
cold and calm as the ice itself. 

As the sun went down the fog succeeded the ice; but 
it hung low, leaving the blue sky above us, screening 
our craft even from the shore and in part from the 
neighboring vessel. Before the twilight fell the rays of 
the sun, then an hour high, passing through the mist 
gave rise to a "fog -eater," a broad, diffused rainbow, 
which was dispelled as the moon rose and peered in over 
the sides of the screen of fog. 

Among the late arrivals was a Newfoundland fishing- 
smack which had two crews aboard, and with them six 



ICEBERGS. 157 

women, all unmarried, two of them mere girls, who lived 
in the same cabin with the men, but stowed away in 
dark holes and corners of the apartment. They were 
paid from ^10 to ^10, Js. for the voyage of five months, 
or a little over a dollar a week, and their work was to 
" head," " gut," split, and salt the fish. Everything about 
the interior was forlorn, dirty, greasy, and not a soul 
aboard had apparently washed for weeks. 

We remained one more day in Square Island Harbor, 
the 14th, which ended in a thunder-shower and a west- 
erly squall, which cleared the harbor of ice and gave 
promise of release from our two weeks' imprisonment. 
It was warm and sultry in the forenoon, the westerly 
wind bringing in swarms of mosquitoes and black-flies, 
especially annoying while I was ashore beating the herb- 
age and bushes for insects. 

On the 15th we slipped out of our stone jug at 
Square Island, and with a mild southwest breeze, which 
freshened in the afternoon, we gaily picked our way 
through the ice and amongst the icebergs up the lane 
between the shore and the ice-pack, now fairly shoved 
to the eastward some miles from land. At noon, after 
making about ten miles, we lay to near a superb marble- 
white berg, weather-, rain-, and wave-worn, broad at the 
base, indented by a deep bay, into which the sea-swell 
rushed and foamed. Wasson and Phoenix got out their 
boat and rowed around it; Bradford made studies in oil 
of Its many phases, its blues so impossible to thoroughly 
catch, as well as its ineffable purples. Another berg was 
like a huge block of city buildings, the foundations hun- 
dreds of feet beneath the waves ; another was a huge 



158 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

pyramid stranded near an island, and looked like a gla- 
cier descending its precipitous sides. 

As we go on through the watery lane huge floes swing 
off shore and are borne down past us by the strong 
Labrador current ; the bays are still choked with ice 
which the southwest wind is forcing to the seaward. 
The ice is remarkably hummocky; worn into the most 
fantastic shapes. The coast has the same rude, broken, 
tossed, and disquieted appearance as about Square Island, 
but with more of the high conical sugar-loaf islands of 
Labradorite rock, such as we were now to see all the 
way to Hopedale. 

At Seal Island the "Domino gneiss "of Lieber ap- 
pears, protected seaward by high islands intermixed 
with low gneiss "skiers," and as we press on the shore 
becomes much lower, the coast -line straight and but 
little broken ; but as we approach the Isle of Ponds 
the shore seaward becomes high and bold, perhaps 300 
to 400 feet, with lofty sea-cliffs. These are formed by 
the dolerite or trap rock which has penetrated and over- 
flown the gneiss. The scenery of these trap overflows 
is quite novel. The seaward side of Spotted Island is 
of trap rock, and on the west the gneiss rock is low and 
very slowly slopes towards the channel which separates it 
from the Isle of Ponds ; there are also two or three trap 
islets which rise out of the water. Going ashore and as- 
cending one of the trap hills, perhaps the remnants of 
some old volcanic crater "which rises out of the sur- 
rounding gneiss, I can take a view of the whole island, 
see other trap hills rising out of the gneiss plain, which 
is studded thickly with shallow pools and lakes sunk in 
the peat, and is low and flat compared with the coast ten 



DOMINO HARBOR. 159 

miles to the south ; while northward this low land or 
basin stretches away for several miles, while twenty or 
thirt)r miles inland the country rises into high hills and 
mountains, the highest summit rising perhaps 1,500 feet 
above the level of the sea. This range or group of peaks 
was probably the Mealy Mountains situated on the 
northern side of Sandwich Bay. 

The low plain before us evidently belonged to a dis- 
tinct geological system from any that we had yet seen ; 
it rested in a depression or basin of Laurentian gneiss, 
and was called by Lieber the " Domino gneiss," and 
probably belongs to the Upper Laurentian system. 

The plain is worn smoothly, and slopes gradually 
toward Domino Harbor; scattered over it are patches of 
large cobble-stones, which indicate that it was once a 
raised ocean-bottom, now at least 125 feet high, which 
reached to the base of the angular masses of trap rock 
capping the gneiss elevation. Strip off the scattered 
masses of matted growth of curlew-berry and cranberry, 
and the smooth, wave-worn, pebbly surface would seem 
as if but yesterday won from the dominion of the sea. 

Domino Harbor, or Domino Run, as it is called on the 
chart, is a broad, deep fissure which nearly divides the 
island in two, the shores vertical though not very high, 
with fishing-houses along the western side, under which 
were moored seven brigs with their sails "unbent," the 
bare masts rising but slightly above the cliffs. Not a 
tree or bush is to be seen in any direction, only low 
spreading masses of willow, belonging to two species : 
one of them just beginning to throw out its catkins ; the 
other, with small, acute glaucous leaves, had done flower- 
ing. Running over the leaves of the willow was an 



l6o A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR, 

arctic ground-beetle {Carabus groenlandicus), which had 
not before been found south of Greenland. 

Here was the best summer-house we had yet seen, 
well built and tolerably attractive ; two pleasant, wom- 
anly faces within, and a spaniel lying in front of the 
door. Captain Duff, the proprietor, had a spacious 
wharf or stage and a well-kept fish-hous«, while he had 
arranged the white quartz pebbles in an attractive way 
to form a drying-floor or flake, instead of using poles ; 
and the walk from the stage to the house was neatly 
made of short poles, forming a corduroy-path. Another 
toad was here seen, which some one had brought from 
the head of the bay ; the man said that they were only 
known to he found here and in St. Michael's Bay. We 
also were told that a polar bear was killed here two 
months ago. 

We reached this harbor early in the afternoon, and 
some of the vessels which we had passed on the way 
after awhile came in and dropped their anchor near us ; 
others sailed on all night, but gained nothing in the end. 
We astonished the natives and fishermen as we sailed 
past their slower craft — of which we passed to-day about 
thirty ; some would in a flattering and good-natured way 
hold out a rope's end, asking to be towed. They told 
us they had seen ninety sail that day in the sound lead- 
ing to the harbor. 

In dredging at the slight depth of only seven fathoms, 
to my great joy that interesting and hitherto purely polar 
holothurian {^Myriotrochus rinkit), came up; with it 
were associated the short arctic mya {Mya truncata), the 
Iceland cockle (yCardium islandicu7it), the Greenland 
Aphrodite, the polar starfish (^Asterias polar is), the inevi 



DUMPLIN HARBOR. l6l 

table knotted sandstar {Ophioglypha nodosa), and other 
forms only previously recorded from Greenland. 

The evening was rarely beautiful for this coast ; the 
ice was out of sight, and the way seemed clear for a good 
run on the morrow. 

The 1 6th proved all that we could have desired in 
point of wind, weather, and absence of ice. A fresh but 
warm northwest wind, sometimes almost blowing a gale 
off-shore, bore us a distance of forty-five miles. The 
thermometer at nine o'clock was 64° F. in the shade ; at 
ten o'clock 84° in the sun, and at one o'clock p.m. 73° 
in the shade. Our way led through a broad sound in- 
side of the outer islands, and then across the mouth of 
Sandwich Bay. At two p.m., however, our further ad- 
vance received a check. We had crossed the mouth of 
Sandwich Bay and were approaching the Horsechopson 
the north side of the entrance to the bay, when the wind 
drew in from the north and headed us off, so that we ran 
back to Dumplin Harbor. As we entered we nearly ran 
aground ; and then in trying to escape that disaster, we 
came near having a collision with a schooner's stern on 
the other side of the narrow entrance. On this occasion 
our pilot. Captain French, nearly lost his head, and it 
has been my lot on several occasions to sail with pilots 
who lost their presence of mind at just the critical 
moment when their senses should be ready at an instant's 
call. Thorough knowledge of the rocks, shoals, and 
headlands of a coast is not always united with the high- 
est order of executive ability ; but on the whole, no fault 
could be found with the management of our vessel ; she 
was a Wellfleet oysterman, built by Donald McKay ; her 
lines were beautiful, but she was not adapted for the 



l62 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

perils of this coast and of semi-arctic navigation. We 
pushed on cautiously and too slowly for the impatient 
company aboard, but we all reached home safely, and 
ran into no great danger. 

Within two hours after we had dropped our anchor a 
fleet of thirty-seven vessels of all descriptions — top-sail, 
fore-and-aft, and three-masted schooners, brigs and brig- 
antines, and hermaphrodite craft — were at anchor in a 
line ; they came in one after the other in single file, all 
having been headed off by the ice as w^e had been ; and as 
they approached us, we, or rather our goodly vessel, was 
the recipient of admiring looks and complimentary ejac- 
ulations in Newfoundland dialect, the amount of room 
on deck and the cleanliness of our craft being the par- 
ticular points of remark : and there was somewhat of a 
contrast, which appealed feelingly to our nostrils when 
we returned their calls. In the hold of one vessel I was 
delighted to see the head and flippers of a veritable wal- 
rus. This was alone needed to complete the experiences 
of arctic voyaging of the past three weeks. They found 
the creature, a young one twelve feet long with tusks 
four inches in length, about fifty miles from shore near 
the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle ; it was found 
dead, having been harpooned, and had evidently floated 
down in the floe-ice from higher latitudes. 

An interesting feature of the day's sail was the raised 
beaches which marked the former level of the ocean. 
Twelve very distinct ones were seen from the vessel 
while on her course. At Spotted Island were two low 
but very regular beaches, perhaps forty feet high. On a 
small islet to the north, between two trap hills, was a 
beach which extended up to a height of perhaps from 



nUNTING'lON HARBOR. ' 163 

150 to 200 feet above the sea, and divided into three ter- 
races, with very steep escarpments. On Stony Island, 
towards the east, was a small short beach between two 
trap hills, and a much higher one was on the northern 
side ; on an island perhaps twenty-five miles north of 
Domino Harbor was a beach at least lOO feet high and 
facing west. Indeed it looked as if the entire coast and 
islands had just risen from the sea, while above the for- 
mer level of the ocean, when at its highest point, the 
hills were strewn with bowlders. 

We now passed larger banks of snow than had here- 
tofore been observed : one in Mullein Cove on the south 
side of Cape North appeared to be nearly a quarter 
of a mile long. Cape North is a bold headland, fully 
400 feet high, faced with rude, jagged trap rocks, and 
within composed of gneiss ; and on the south side a 
low raised beach, with large trap islands opposite, called 
Greely Islands. VVe then pass Cape Noble, with its 
overhanging cliffs and a fine deep harbor ; near it are 
" The Sisters," two low, flat islands, one with a trap dyke 
passing through the middle, the other one half black trap 
rock, the vegetation on it of a bright green, clinging to 
the black debris of the volcanic rock. From this point 
we could again see the ice to the northeast moving out 
to sea. After passing Long Island head, which seemed 
to be of red syenite and about 400 feet high, we sailed 
by Huntington Island, a noble mass of volcanic rock 
perhaps 500 feet high, with an evergreen growth seen in 
the bays indenting its shores. 

On the mainland a large fire was raging, probably 
set by the Indians ; the sky to the westward and all 
about us was lurid with the smoke. Here also we felt 



164 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

the full force of the Labrador current which husrs this 
shore, running at the rate of three knots an hour, its 
effects not much weakened by the outer islands. The 
water at the surface was perceptibly fresh, brought down 
by the rivers and streams emptying into these bays. 

Going ashore in our harbor (Dumplin) we found the 
beautiful dwarf arctic laurel {Kalmia glaucd) just in 
flower ; associated with it was a narrow-leaved Ledum 
in full bloom, and very distinct from the Labrador tea 
{Ledum latifoliuin), which was only just beo^inning to 
flower ; besides, it is more procumbent and lives on more 
exposed surfaces than the broad-leaved species. In one 
sheltered spot was a thick growth of spruce, mostly 
dwarfed, though one stump was seen to be thirteen 
inches in diameter. Dredging in four fathoms did not 
bring to light any novelties. On the north side of the 
island there was a good deal of ice. Before sunset the 
sky cleared in the west ; there was a fresh westerly breeze 
through the night, and a good prospect of a fair day on 
the morrow. Salmon trout were caught here, and the 
sea-trout are at places common enough ; but the shallow 
lakes do not abound in fish, although the deep lakes 
among the mountains of the interior were said by Davies, 
at the time he wrote, to be well stocked with them. 
Pike's Harbor was three miles above us, and Tub Island 
was also in sight. 

From this point we could see the famous Mealy 
Mountain range, composed of lofty hills said by ex- 
plorers to be from 1,500 to 2,500 feet in height ; we 
judged their height to be not much less than 2,000 feet ; 
they are certainly considerably higher than the moun- 
tains of Mt. Desert, Maine, the highest peak of which is 



RAISED BEACHES. 165 

1,500 feet. This range runs in a general northeast and 
southwest direction between Sandwich Bay and Hamil- 
ton Inlet, and it well deserves to be accurately measured 
and mapped. To the highest peak of this range we 
have given the name of Mt. Cabot, in honor of John 
and Sebastian Cabot. The position of Dumplin Harbor 
was ascertained by Captain Handy by reckoning from^ 
observations of the sun at noon to be in lat. 53° 48' ; 
long. 56° 23'. 

The 17th was a fine day, with the wind from the 
south, sometimes hauling east of south. We ran twenty- 
five miles across the mouth of Sandwich Bay to Tub 
Island, well known to the fisherman on the coast, and the 
farthest point reached by American fishermen ; it is high 
and steep, and so named for its resemblance to a tub ly- 
ing bottom-side up. Beyond this harbor the Labrador 
coast is the Ultima Thule of America ; and here the ser- 
vices of our coast-pilot, Captain French, were to be sup- 
plemented by native guides. We now had high expec- 
tations of making new discoveries in the entomology, 
marine zoology, and geology of the northern coast of 
this little-known region. Tub Island was found to be 
in lat. 54° 12', long. 56° 40'. 

One of the most remarkable headlands on the coast 
is the eastern end of Horsechops Island ; a lofty basaltic 
cliff with a human profile, the nose distinctly Roman 
and the forehead retreating. On the north side of the 
island were three raised beaches, at least 100 feet high. 
Inshore the land was very high (the highest portion 398 
feet by the chart), with the snow lying on it in extensive 
fields. 

A white bear was shot two years ago, on an island a 



l66 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

few miles south of Tub Island, under the following cir- 
cumstances : A man was walking along the shore with 
his little girl ; they separated ; she saw the bear and ran to 
her father ; the bear also ran, and plunged into the water, 
where the man shot him. I was particular to inquire as 
to the occurrence of this animal, and from all I learned, 
it appears to be more or less of a permanent resident on 
the northern Labrador coast, though I at first supposed 
that it only occasionally strayed from the arctic regions ; 
it would seem as if its range overlapped that of the black 
bear, the two species being found in the same localities 
north of Belle Isle. 

We visited American Island, which is a little west of 
Tub Island, and colonized during the summer by a man 
named Williams ; it is of light-colored gneiss, with ex- 
tensive broad trap dykes and irregular masses of the same 
volcanic material. Williams was distinguished from 
other of his countrymen by having married a full-blooded 
Eskimo-woman. They had no children of their own, 
but had adopted, strange to say, a mountaineer or Nas- 
kope Indian child. The poor thing had been "burnt" 
by frost during the past winter, and still suffered from 
her exposure. On our way to the island we saw the fin 
of a killer projecting four or five feet above the water, 
moving rapidly to and fro in a school of grampus, as if 
engaged in combat with the latter, which were recog- 
nized by their small fins, only a foot high, which some- 
times broke the surface of the sea. 

From Tub Island we could easily see the land twenty 
miles distant on the north shore of Groswater Bay or 
Hamilton Inlet, Tub Island being at the southern en- 
trance ; it is, however, forty miles across the mouth of 



SEA-FOWL. 167 

this great inlet, the largest and deepest bay in the 
coast. 

Unfortunately we did not go up Ivuctoke Bay, or 
Hamilton Inlet, as it is variously called, though well 
meriting a thorough exploration, since it is the largest 
and deepest fiord on the Labrador coast. Its general 
shape may be seen in the map of Eskimo Bay. The 
principal settlement is Rigolet, a Hudson Bay Com- 
pany's post. 

The ice-belt was reported " as thick enough to walk 
on " a few miles to the westward, and the wind blew chilly 
and damp from that direction. Day before yesterday 
the floes were close in shore. Here we saw more sea- 
fowl than had been observed of late, a few puffins, 
murres, guillemots, and a pair of eider-ducks. Years 
ago these bays swarmed with fowl, where now they are 
well-nigh deserted. In " Old Man's bight," Captain 
French twelve years ago saw the wild goose in immense 
numbers. We did not see a goose' upon the whole coast ; 
and now since tbey have been so closely hunted they are 
rare and shy. The captain again and again expressed 
his astonishment at the amount of ice upon this northern 
coast ; he had never seen it before north of Belle Isle, 
and from all accounts it has been the coldest season, with 
the most floe-ice, experienced for nearlv forty years. 
The cod had not "struck in " at this point yet ; a few 
capelin had been seen, but the fishery had not yet begun, 
while last year long before this date there was " plenty of 
fish." 

This morning at Dumplin Harbor Mr. Mann caught 
a Chionobas differing very slightly from C. semz'dea, but 
in Mr. Scudder's opinion specifically different from that 



l68 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

species, whose only habitat then known was the summit 
of Mt. Washington. It has since been observed in the 
Rocky Mountains. Here also we found the beach-pea 
{Lathyrus marztzmus) just flowering. 

July 1 8. We left Tub Island at 5 o'clock in the morn- 
ing, and crossing the mouth of Hamilton Inlet were 
obliged to put into Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles dis- 
tant. The southwest wind freshened after dinner and 
blew off shore in the evening, but we were prevented 
from reaching Cape Webuc or Harrison by the ice, some 
of which floated about our vessel while at anchor. It 
was, however, waning ; large cakes breaking into pieces 
with a report like a volley of firearms. 

The northern shore of Groswater Bay — Hamilton or 
Ivuctoke Inlet, as it is variously called by the French, 
English, and Eskimo inhabitants — is in places very high 
and rugged, owing to the presence of trap dykes and an- 
cient volcanic overflows capping the hills of gneiss. 
Huge dykes of the black rock ran in ruffled crests over 
the hills of pale, gneiss-like, huge black walls, " Black 
and White" is a notable island, conico-pyramidal in form, 
the western end of black trap rock, the eastern end com- 
posed of the pale gneiss common on this part of the 
coast. There is a similar but less conspicuous and lower 
island to the eastward. One dyke in particular, seen just 
before entering Sloop Harbor, was of basaltic columns 
in horizontal, quite regular, prisms. The highest hills ap- 
peared to be about seven or eight hundred feet in height, 
though this may be too high an estimate ; * but owing 
to the great outbursts of black basalt capping the light 

* Cape Harrison is estimated on the chart to be 1,065 feet high. 



" BLACK-AND-WHITE " ISLAND. 



169 



Northern Coast of Hamilton Inlet, four Miles distant, bearing L. 



Coast near Indian Harbor. A, Indian Harbor. 




Coast hills, 500 to 800 feet high, on north side of Hamilton Inlet, bearing 

one mile north. 




White and Black " Island near Indian Harbor: a, black basalt; d, whitish 

eneiss. 




Two parallel dikes, one forming the crest of the hill; one-half mile N. w.; d, b, 

white gneiss. 




Three trap dikes; i, the top of " Black and White", Island forming the west- 
ern slope, b, b, white gneiss. 




.yr-r /T/^^-V 



Northern shore of Hamilton Inlet, the extreme point to the right. a, 
I, basalt; b, white gneiss. 

gneiss hills, and running in ridges or forming great 
splashes on the face of the hills, and sometimes entire 
hills, like craters, the hills are transformed from what 



170 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

would Otherwise be quite tame elevations into high, bold, 
wild-looking peaks. 

We went into Indian Harbor, which is an island from 
ten to fifteen miles from the mainland, forming the 
northern side of the entrance to Hamilton Inlet, to find 
a pilot for Cape Harrison, but none could be found. 
Near here is Ice Tickle, where the ice is usually de- 
tained later than elsewhere. Around one high head the 
murres are very abundant ; it was evidently a favorite 
breeding-place for them ; indeed all through the polar 
regions we imagine that these sea-fowl (murres, dovkies, 
sea-pigeons, and guillemots) are somewhat local, breeding 
about certain high headlands and inaccessible crags and 
cliffs ; while the puffins select points where they may 
burrow and mine in the crumbling rock. 

Around the head of this harbor, and especially well 
marked on the southwest side, is a noble beach at least 
150 and most probably 200 feet high, lodged between 
two hills ; its shingly surface was free from vegetation, 
and it looked as though the waves had receded from it 
but the night before ; it was divided into two steps or 
terraces, the lowermost perhaps about 50 feet above the 
harbor. It was a constant source of regret that there was 
no means at hand of accurately measuring the height of 
these beaches : not an aneroid barometer was aboard, and 



THE COAST BETWEEN CAPE HARRISON AND SLOOP HARBOR BEARING TEN MILES 

WEST. 

I was quite unprepared for their accurate study. Indeed 
almost no attention has been given to the subject of 
ancient sea-marffins in the United States, the terraces of 



INDIAN HARBOR. 1 71 

the Great Lakes having been measured more accurately, 
since they are much more distinct than those on the 
coast. But on my return after this experience with 
Labrador raised beaches, it was easy to detect them in 
the vicinity of Salem, Lynn, Chelsea, and Boston, as well 
as on the Maine coast, though on the New England 
shores they are difficult to distinguish on account of the 
vegetable orrowth and forests which conceal them and 
prevent their ready recognition. 

Huge bowlders of syenite, some oval and very round, 
were scattered about on shore, the smaller ones well 
rounded by the waves, while the bottom of the harbor is 
paved with cobble-stones, as we ascertained by dredging. 
The summits of the hills surrounding the harbor were 
formed of a pale, whitish, foliated syenite, with scattered 
specks of hornblende, while lower down on the sides 
the rock was a very dark gneiss, slightly porphyritic. I 
found here a dwarf willow new to me, the flowers purple, 
of nearly the same tint as the flowers of the cloud-berry. 
A species of field-mouse, which we failed to capture, w^as 
common here, its nests lined with mouse-colored fur. 

The head of the harbor was said to be haunted by a 
ghost ; we did not attempt to secure it or to lay it, hut 
a more substantial, though still a fleeting treasure, 
was the huee, o-jacier-like snow-banks in the vicinity 
of the haunted spot, which were perhaps 20 feet thick, 
very hard on the surface, and much soiled: too hard, per- 
haps, to retain even the traces of the footprints of a Lab- 
rador spirit — whose tread, judging by the average Labra- 
dorian, must have been a firm one. One of the banks 
appeared to have slidden into the water, and from its 
edge a miniature berg had broken off and was floating 



1/2 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

away. So well marked were the ice-worn hills about us 
and elsewhere on this coast, that this snow-bank seemed 
but the dwarfed descendant of the great multitude of 
glaciers which had so recently filled the innumerable 
bays, fjords, and "tickles" of this coast. That this is 
not a mere fancy is shown by the following facts : 

Mr. Lieber, the geologist of the U. S. Coast Survey 
Eclipse expedition of i860, which went near Cape Chid- 
ley, the point we hoped to reach, speaks of walking over 
a snow-bank on the flanks of Mt. Bache, which " was a 
miniature glacier," while " a regular moraine was piled 
up along its edges." Captain Handy told me that on 
Savage Island, just north of Hudson's Strait, he saw in 
August ravines full of ice ; and on Button Island as 
late as September 20 he found snow in the ravines. He 
called them glaciers, one patch of snow being five hun- 
dred feet long^ and two hundred feet broad. On Reso- 
lution Island, only one hundred and twenty miles north 
of Cape Chidley, he saw glaciers extending into the wa- 
ter, from which small icebergs fell into the sea ; and 
Captain Hall describes the Grinnell glacier on Meta 
Incognita, which was two miles long, and discharged 
icebergs into the sea. 

The next day the wind was against us, being north 
and very light. The day was warm and pleasant, but 
towards sundown cloudy, and as usual, as soon as the sun 
goes down it becomes cold and chilly. Though the floe- 
ice had now disappeared, a large number of bergs were 
to be seen outside slowly travelling down the coast, 
some of the smaller ones stranded a few miles from the 
shore. After this date, and beyond Cape Webuc, we 
were not troubled by the floe-ice ; for weeks we had 



TRANSPORTATION OF BOWLDERS BY FLOE-ICE. 1 73 

watched the progress south of this enormous expanse of 
floating ice, the stream being not less than a thousand 
miles long and over a hundred miles in breadth, more 
or less interrupted, of course, by " leads " and open water. 
It will be remembered that in former years the " float- 
ing-ice " theory prevailed, geologists almost universally be- 
lieving that the polishing and grooving of the rocks and 
distribution of drift or diluvium were produced by floe-ice 
passing over the submerged land. This theory has been 
almost wholly abandoned, though south of the edge of 
the great continental glacier floating-ice may have trans- 
ported morainal material southward and dropped it over 
the Middle and Southern States. It was therefore with 
much interest that I watched day after day the effects 
upon the coast of such a mass of ice as beset us for a 
period of nearly a month in summer. This immense 
body of floating-ice, as we have elsewhere stated,* seemed 
directly to produce but little alteration in the appear- 
ance of the rocks on the coast ; in fact, the only imme- 
diate effects of waves and shore-ice action were observed 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence at Little Mecatina Island, 
where there is no true arctic floe-ice. At Domino Har- 
bor, as well as the harbor we were now in, the rocks 
had been disrupted, and the land descended in rock- 
terraces to the water's edge, and to a point at least two 
hundred and fifty feet below it. This singular appearance 
r attributed to the action of the ice-fort, or winter-ice, 
which has been well described by Dr. Kane. Now 
why should not the floe-ice while in motion along 
the shore have ground down the jagged and angular 

* Observations on the Glacial Phenomena of Labrador and Maine, Memoirs 
of the Boston Society of Natural History, i, pt. ii. Boston, 1867. 



174 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

points presented to the ice-current ? If our slightly- 
built vessel could navigate these ice-laden waters, lie 
in harbors filled with ice, and not even have the paint 
worn off her hull, how could she have escaped the least 
of all the tremendous effects which are by some theorists 
attributed to floating ice? Moreover, no bowlders or 
gravel or mud were seen upon any of the cakes of floe- 
ice, nor on any of the bergs, many of which were flat- 
topped, like ordinary cakes of floe -ice. If they had 
been thus laden, they had dropped all burdens of this 
nature nearer their birthplace in Davis Strait, or the re- 
gions farther north. The icebergs in nearly every case, 
when closely observed, bore evidence of having been re- 
peatedly overturned as they were borne along in the cur- 
rent, often with old water-lines presenting different an- 
gles to the present water-level. The floe-ice was hum- 
mocky, which is a strong proof of its having come from 
open straits in the polar regions, the cakes looking as if 
they had been frozen and refrozen, jammed together, 
and then piled atop of each other by currents and storms 
long before their advent upon this coast. The only dis- 
coloration noticed was probably caused by seals resting 
upon and soiling the surface. It should however be 
mentioned that one bowlder was said to have been seen 
by a member of our party upon an iceberg off Cape 
Webuc. 

Finally, as we shall see farther on, the few ice-marks 
and grooves detected by myself and others on the Lab- 
rador coast show plainly that the country was once cov- 
ered by land-ice, that it filled the bays and fjords, and 
moved into the sea at right angles to the course of the 
Labrador current, which flows parallel to the shore 



GLACIAL MARKS. 1/5 

north of Belle Isle. Moreover, we would impress upon 
the mind of any lingering believer in the sole agency of 
floating-ice, that the surface of Greenland is covered with 
a glacier or rather a mer-de-glace, from which ice-streams 
press through the fjord into the sea, and that there are 
innumerable glaciers on the land-masses throughout the 
Arctic Ocean west of the Labrador peninsula, which are 
constantly grinding down, polishing, and grooving their 
rocky beds. Their work is perennial : that of the floe- 
ice is confined to the rocks at the shore of the sea, and 
there it virtually ends ; the after effects of the floating- 
ice being so inconsiderable as not to rise to the dignity 
of a geological agency. 

And so there was a ceaseless charm and interest in 
the problems in geology, physical geography, and biology 
which suggested themselves to us, whether clambering 
over the hill-tops, shuffling over the shingly pebbly 
beaches, now raised hundreds of feet above the sea, or 
chasing the arctic butterflies and moths, or dredging 
polar starpoles and the innumerable marine forms peo- 
pling these waters. 

Life was monotonous enough to the others, as they 
felt bitterly disappointed at their failure to reach the 
higher Moravian stations and the promised headland of 
Chidley, from which we could look over Hudson's Strait 
and the waters of the Greenland seas ; but so far as I 
was concerned, the opportunity to study the glacial 
marks, the raised beaches, the insects, and other life- 
forms, were so many crumbs of comfort to offset the 
general feeling of disappointment. It would be next to 
impossible to properly explore this coast in a single sea- 
son without a steamer and small steam launches for work 



176 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR, 

in the bays and fjords ; thus independent of wind and 
ice, one could run outside and do in good weather deep- 
sea dredging, scrape the bottoms of the shallower bays 
and reaches, measure the raised beaches, geologize, botan- 
ize, and entomologize, and reach the better breeding- 
haunts of the water-fowl, and do something toward col- 
lecting the nests and eggs of land-birds. A well- 
equipped party in a steamer could, in four months spent 
on this coast, add vastly to what, on the whole, is perhaps 
the least-known portion of northern America. With 
the ample knowledge of polar life and nature we now 
possess as a basis of comparison, here is a most interest- 
ing field of exploration for our rising naturalists; it 
would at all events be an excellent training-school in 
physical geology and biology. 

This day was entirely devoted to insect-hunting, and 
I found myself in a new world so far as the insect fauna 
was concerned, many truly polar species abounding. 
The spiders were thoroughly arctic, dark, dull -colored 
creatures, occasionally venturing out from their retreats 
under the growth of curlew berry, or under stones ; sim- 
ilar forms afterwards occurred to me in just such places 
on the summit of Mt. Washington, on Gray's and 
Pike's Peaks, showing that the Alpine summits of our 
mountains are but outliers, serial islands, so to speak, 
detached zoogeographically from the frozen regions of 
the north. 

On a steep, southerly exposure of the harbor, where a 
long glacis sloped toward an angular precipice, which 
overhung patches of vegetation, between the worn and 
polished naked rocks of the shore, we started up a few 
butterflies and moths. To my genuine surprise and de- 



ARCTIC MOTHS AND BIRCHES. 1/7 

light, there fluttered, half skipping and half-flying, over 
the lichened bowlders a butterfly I had never before 
seen, the high arctic bluet, (Polyoinmatics franklinii), 
heretofore only known to occur in the arctic world, and 
discovered by the naturalist of Franklin's voyage. I 
also netted an Argynnis, not hitherto discovered so far 
south ; it was likewise a polar form. 

The moths were all arctic species, and when at rest 
so harmonized in color with the lichens and other vege- 
tation in which they nestled as to entirely deceive me. 
And yet what was the use of practising, even uncon- 
sciously to themselves, this deception ? The answer was 
not far off — there was a shore-lark, or some such bird, 
flitting about and running over the rocks, busily search- 
ing for just such moths as these, and the only hope of 
safety for the insects from their sharp eyes was in their 
resemblance to the lichens. 

The only tree seen here was the dwarf birch, Betula 
nana; those who have seen this Lilliputian tree on the 
summit of Mt. .Washino-ton will well remember its 
humble stature and little round leaves. No tree per- 
haps ever underwent greater modification by climate 
than did the ancestor of this species, and we cannot well 
doubt but that all these dwarf arctic trees and shrubs, so 
closely allied to their congeners in the north temperate 
zone, only escaped utter extinction by adapting them- 
slvees to the extremes of their arctic surroundings. It 
will be remembered that the oak, gum, and tulip tree, 
the sassafras- and maple, the cypress and sequoia, once 
flourished in what is now Greenland in growths as luxu- 
riant as the forests of the Gulf States. When the ice- 
period was ushered in, and climate and other circum- 



1/8 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

Stances changed the inhabitants of that tertiary polar 
land, of which Greenland and Spitzbergen are the rem- 
nants, they were either entirely effaced, or emigrated 
southward, becoming the ancestors of our American 
plants and animals, or, as in the case of a few forms, 
maintained their ground but changed into the present 
arctic animals and plants. 

The afternoon was spent on the opposite side of the 
harbor, where there is an ancient sea-beach at least two 
hundred feet high, with four terraces, well defined by 
the windrows of pebbles left by the retreating waves — 
how many thousand years ago, a wise man would hardly 
dare to guess. On the two lower terraces the willows 
grew in irregular rounded patches ; there were two spe- 
cies, one growing to a foot in height, their tops of the 
same length, as if clipped off with scissors ; the other 
species was still more prone, creeping low in the rein- 
deer moss and curlew-berry, or spreading vine-like over 
the rocks. Their catkins were being investigated by 
bumble-bees of two kinds, one or both truly polar. 

During the 20th a cold northeast wind blew ; the har- 
bor was open to the wind and sea, so that our vessel was 
pitching through the livelong day, making everybody's 
headache, and sending nearly all to their bunks to sleep 
through the discomfort. No ice, however, was brought 
in by the wind, which showed that the coast was clear 
whenever the wind should be fair. The icebergs, how- 
ever, are seen marching ceaselessly down the coast at a 
distance of ten or fifteen miles out at sea. 

The wind and swell did not prevent the fishermen 
from seining for capelin, so essential as bait in fish- 
ing for cod. When the seine is hauled the fish are 



COD AND CAPELIN. 1 79 

bailed out with scoop-nets. At such times these active 
little fish throw off from their gleaming sides all the 
colors of the rainbow. The cod were seen through 
the transparent water hovering about the outskirts of 
the school, snapping at any which became separated 
from their fellows, and following them so near the boats 
that the men would drive them aw^ay with their boat- 
hooks. After capturing one school, they would row 
about near shore on the watch for another. The seine- 
boats differ from others in being narrow and long, from 
twenty-five to twenty-seven feet in length. 

We here saw specimens of a variety of cod, called 
" duffy," which may be the same as Professor Wyman's 
" bull-dog cod." Its head is blunter, the under-jaw is 
shorter, while the fish is darker than ordinary cod ; the 
fishermen pronounce them " no good ;" it is possible 
that such as are taken are simply deformed individuals 
of the common species. We found, however, that at 
Hopedale these fish were comparatively common, and 
taken with the gig by the Eskimo. 

We left Sloop Harbor early in the morning of the 
2 1 St with a light easterly breeze, but we made only five 
or six miles, playing about the icebergs nearly half the 
day. The gigantic steps or terraces carved by the shore- 
ice out. of the lofty rocky shore of the islands about 
here were very remarkable, especially when we saw 
them in sections. We counted some thirty bergs to- 
day. While Mr. Bradford was industriously painting 
them, a party of us went in a boat to Tinker Island, 
a lofty rock far out to sea, its sides sheer precipices, 
whose bases were washed by the ceaseless Atlantic 
swell ; a yawning chasm nearly divides the island in 



l8o A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

two, and by entering the fissure we could effect a land- 
ing, and climb up to the heights above. The rock and 
all its belongings, with the sea-fowls flying about or sit- 
ting by thousands on the projecting shelves, reminded 
us of the pictures, so familiar in childhood, of similar 
scenes in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. The 
tinkers and murres breeding here were in immense 
numbers, the females on the rock shelves, and their con- 
sorts resting on the waves, or flying overhead to the 
leeward. This island was situated several miles from 




TINKER ISLAND, BEARING TWO TO THREE MILES WEST. 

land, remote from other islands, and consisted of a hard, 
coarse-grained granite, the feldspar predominating and 
of two kinds — one flesh-colored orthoclase, the other 
smoky labradorite ; it was weathered into regular steps 
and shelves, and huge blocks had been detached by the 
frost, the angles having been rounded by the weather; 
near the water's edge the waves had worn it into smooth 
declivities. The east wind blew chill from the direction 
of the ice-pack, which could be seen a few miles off en- 
closing a number of large bergs. The pools of water 
on the higher portions of the island were inhabited by 
case-worms, and it was evident, by the feathers at the 
bottom, that the murres used them as wash-basins. In a 
deep, narrow chink between the rocks I found a murre's 
egg, while the tunnels made by the puffins wound 
through the scanty soil. I started up a blue fox, which 
was running toward me with a murre's egg in his mouth ; 



CAPE WEBUC. l8l 

on my throwing a stone at him lie dropped his egg and 
scampered off. I hallooed for nearly ten minutes for 
some one with a gun to come and shoot him, and kept 
him in sight ; with more of curiosity than fear he would 
stop at intervals to look at me, keeping a safe distance 
off and barking, until he disappeared. Soon Mr. Was- 
son came up ; we pursued finding him on the other side 
of the island with another egg in his mouth. Mr. Was- 
son gave him his death-wound, though he ran some 
distance with the egg between his teeth before he 
dropped dead. His flanks and belly were white, the 
rest of a slate-blue color, his legs very long, and tail long 
though not very bushy ; the more remarkable features 
were his short, rounded ears, as if cropped. Mr. Wasson 
also shot a Labradorian falcon, which Professor Baird 
afterward wrote him he thought might be an immature 
stage of Falco candicans. On this exposed spot the 
cloud-berry had nearly done flowering ; the cochlearia, 
growing from two to six inches high, was in bloom, 
while a pretty, gentian-like flower was found here which 
was not observed elsewhere. 

We laid to all the short night, as Mr. Bradford wanted 
to paint icebergs, getting up at three the next morning 
to secure some noble ones. Then we soon ran down 
and doubled Cape Webuc or Harrison, which is a lofty 
gneiss headland, faced with syenite, its northern face 
seamed with vertical trap dykes with an N.E. and S.W. 
direction. Ragged Island now bears N.N.W., and, 
as its name -implies, is exceedingly rough and jagged, 
and evidently composed of syenite, as are nearly all 
these headlands, bfeing probably outflows of crystalline 
rocks capping the Laurentian gneiss. We next came 



l82 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

in sight of high rounded mountains near the shore, 
which appear to be not less than twelve hundred feet 
high ; far back of them were several peaks, which rose 
above a mass of clouds partly enveloping them, and 
seemed to rise five or six thousand feet into the heavens. 
The highest peak is Mt. Misery, and Captain French 




MOUNT MISERY, OR AI.LAGAIGAI, 2,170 FEET, DUE W. OF CAPE HARRISON BY 

CHART. 

says that in clear weather the group seems very near 
when viewed from the southern side of Hamilton Inlet. 
I do not doubt but that this peak, which was obscured by 
clouds for two days after, was not less than two thou- 
sand feet high."^ The view of this mountain, so trans- 
formed by the clouds hovering just below its peak, was 
the grandest coast view of the voyage. 

Towards the end of the day we ran into Stag Bay, 
some twenty miles north of Cape Harrison, after a pilot. 
Dredging in this harbor at the depth of ten fathoms was 
not very fruitful, except in some fine varieties or species 
of the very variable genus, Astarte, including A. banksii 
and A. compressa, and a Gammarus new to me. The 
harbors on the Atlantic coast of Labrador have rather 
barren rocky bottoms ; sea-weeds are scanty, the shores 
are so steep; and there are so few large streams emptying 
into the bays, that no sediments are carried down from 
the 'land to form muddy or sandy bottoms. If the 
floating-ice theory were true, we should have expected 

* My guess I found to be a good one, as I find Mt. Misery is put down in the 
chart under the name of AUagaivaivik, with a height of 2,170 feet. 



SHORE-COLLECTING. 1 83 

to find plenty of sediments borne from the polar seas : 
hence the absence of such submarine deposits in these 
protected harbors, as well as out to sea, so far as we 
could learn, — -which, however, are choked with ice during 
June and July, — is a significant fact. When we lay out- 
side we were never becalmed, or saw the time. when we 
could get a chance to dredge over the vessel's side : 
and as we have already said, such work can only be 
thoroughly done by a well-equipped steamer. 

Since leaving the Strait of Belle Isle there has been 
little chance of collecting the littoral species ; indeed, 
that broad stretch of shore and fiats between high and 
low water mark, which is so characteristic of the Nova 
Scotia and New England shores, is here well-nigh abol- 
ished ; the tides rise and fall not much over four, or at 
the most five or six feet, while the rocks plunge directly 
into the sea, and there is only a narrow border of fucus 
hanging sparsely from the rocks, between tide- marks, 
with little life, — indeed, the only species I noticed be- 
ing the common shore-snail, Littorina riidzs, and the 
little amphipod crustacean, Gamnmrus mutatus. The 
same poverty of littoral animals obtains on the Green- 
land shores, and it may be thus readily understood why 
the starving members 'of the Greeley party could find 
nothing to eat along shore but scattered sea-weed and 
" shrimps," the latter undoubtedly the Gammartis muta- 
ius, which is common on the shores of the polar seas. 
The best spots to dredge are the patches of shelly bot- 
toms situated in eddies at the inner end of a " tickle " 
leading out from a deep harbor, where the tides and 
currents have no power ; for where the dead shells are 
gathered, the living ones are mixed with them. 



184 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

The whole of the 23d, which was cloudy and rainy^ 
was spent in search of a pilot for Hopedale. A boat's 
crew, myself included, rowed some seven or eight miles 
to Roger's Harbor, where in a <iuiet basin connected 
with the sea by two narrow "tickles," were about fif- 
teen vessels — schooners and barks. We went aboard 
one, and it was indescribably filthy, above and below ; 
from the cabin arose a dreadful stench ; the women 
aboard, with one exception, harmonized in point of per- 
sonal appearance with their surroundings. We asked 
for a little saleratus, and were kindly given some made 
from the spruce. 

This island is of syenite, its feldspar flesh-colored, and 
the shore is in its scenic features like that of the rocks at 
Nahant or Mt. Desert, with a few small beaches, the 
slopes leading down to them of an intense green. The 
cod had not yet " put in." Last year on the 26th they 
took a hundred quintals the first day they appeared. 
The fishermen talk discouragingly of this year's pros- 
pects, and seem to be pushing " up to the nor'ard " 
more rapidly than usual. In fact, for three years New- 
foundland fishermen have gone for fish beyond the 
Moravian settlement of Nain. Add to the lack of cod-^ 
tish, the failure of the spring's " swile," " sile," or seal 
fishery, and they were doomed to fare pretty hard that 
winter. 

We found we had not gone far enough to find Tom 
Bloomfield,''^ the man we were in search of, but were 
near the house of Cole, a half-breed, part Englishman 
and part Eskimo, with an Eskimo wife and half-breed 

* See 21 on the map of Eskimo Bay. Cole's house is 22. 



EXTINCTION OF THE ESKIMO. 1 85 

children. The captain rowed over, and by the merest 
good luck found young Cole, who agreed to pilot our 
vessel up to Strawberry Harbor, twenty-five miles dis- 
tant, where there were said to be two Eskimos who 
would be glad to show us the way from there to Hope- 
dale, since they were desirous of going there, but had 
no boat, and would otherwise have to wait until the 
autumn. 

Never shall I forget the grandeur, the utter desolation, 
and the purple glories of the sky and shore as we rowed 
back that evening down Stag Bay, which is a wide 
sound, bordered with lofty terraced hills, the last rays of 
the setting sun lighting up the heights of the Webuc 
Range, as we may term it, up whose slopes gradually 
rose the purplish tints ushering in the darker shades of 
the twilight. 

' Young Cole came aboard the vessel in the evening 
after w^e had returned, in a large jack, which was decked 
over ; it had a small punt on it, beside his wife and 
child, upon whom he depends to help him row back 
should we be fortunate enough to reach Strawberry 
Harbor by noon. 

It seems that there were formerly a few Eskimos 
living in this region, but they have died off rapidly 
within a few years past. They had gone with the eiders^ 
the geese, and the sea-fowl, the walrus and the fish ; 
their game and their race had been banished, like them, 
to the arctic regions. Our pilot, Captain French, said 
that there was now but one Eskimo where there used to 
be twenty. Their disappearance here seems due partly 
to natural causes, to the absence of abundant game and 
birds, and partly to contact with the civilization of this 



l86 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

coast, unless their close winter houses induce chest 
troubles : any other diseases are unknown. But what- 
'ever may have been the cause, they are rapidly melting 
away, disappearing by entire families. They have prob- 
ably faded away before the Nascopi Indians, who are 
better armed, and their permanence at Hopedale and 
northward may be due to the absence of the red Indians 
from that part of the coast. But the Innuit or Eskimo is 
a doomed race. Whether they are the remnants of the 
palaeolithic race (which good authorities doubt) and for- 
merly ranged over northern Europe during the earlier 
stone age, and extended in America as far south as the 
border of the great continential glaciers, and were a few 
centuries ago driven northward by the red Indians, is a 
problem ; but probably long before the red man entirely 
disappears, the Eskimo will be represented by but a few 
thousands in the high northern regions. 

Cole was not much inclined to leave home, as the 
salmon were just about striking in ; and, as he said, they 
only remained three or four days, and he might lose 
them, since only his father, who, as we understood, also 
had an Eskimo wife, would have to attend to the nets 
single, or rather — as his better Eskimo half would work 
man-fashion with him — double-handed. 

At the mouth of the stream where they lived were 
several huts tenanted by salmon fishers. About them 
lounged a number of full-blooded Eskimo dogs, which 
are quite superfluous in summer, but useful in winter, 
when they can draw sledges at the rate of a hundred 
miles a day should the travelling be good. 

The early morning of the 24th of July found us with 
our pilot aboard ready to start for Strawberry Harbor ; but 



GAME, 187 

there was a dead calm. However, at about 10 o'clock a 
north wind sprang up, so that we put to sea and sailed 
until within eight miles of Strawberry Harbor, when it 
blew hard and became too thick to run farther ; so we 
put back three miles and ran under a lee-shore, where 
the northeast wind blew a cold, fierce gale, with fog and 
rain. Our vessel dras'g'ed her anchor, which was down 
at a depth of twenty fathoms, so that the larger one was 
dropped down, making ninety fathoms of cable to haul 
in on the morrow. 

Our pilot was a very intelligent half-breed who could 
read and write, his wife also a half-breed Eskimo. He 
said that the ice had only cleared off the previous week, 
and up to that time since March they have steadily had 
in Stag Bay cold easterly and northeasterly winds. Near 
where we anchored was Cole's brother, who had built 
himself a new house. Yesterday he took six and to-day 
eight salmon in his nets, which were stretched across the 
mouth of a little brook. He shot eleven deer during 
the winter, one of them sufficient to supply the family 
with food for two weeks. They had plenty of deer and 
other game when too late in the season for obtaining 
fur ; he predicted an abundant supply of game during the 
coming autumn. We will give his statement regarding 
the varieties of foxes here, which may be taken for what 
it is worth. There are four varieties of foxes which he 
said crossed among themselves, i.e., the red and white, 
which are the two most common ones ; then the patch 
fox, which is blue with red on the rump, and the black 
fox. WhetTier the red and white or arctic fox interbreed 
we do not know ; the blue fox is undoubtedly the white 
fox in its summer pelage ; the short ears and long tail 



l88 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

sufficiently distinguish the arctic fox and its varieties 
from the red or Virginian species. They had never 
seen the walrus about here. The spruce-trees up in the 
interior are quite large, Cole said, some of them reaching 
a diameter of thirty inches at the butt ; but the birches 
are small, none large enough to make canoes. 

Of the red Indians of the interior but little could be 
learned. The reader will find the best account of them 
in Hind's Labrador, while the subjoined extract will 
convey some idea of the Labrador Indians as they were.* 

* " As for the interior parts of the Labrodore, it is wholy occupied by the 
northern Indians before taken notice of, who live and depend mostly on fish 
and deersfllesh; woolves, foxes and otters, affords cloathing; and as these are 
to be had by traps, and guns, and other contrivances, their necessities nor 
ambition dont prompt them to desire many things from us: our twine, fish- 
hooks, ice chizzels, ketles, and small wares, make up the ultimate of their wants. 
As for guns, powder, and shott, their are numbers of them don't know their use. 
The moulted fowls at proper seasons, and what else may be had with the bow 
and arrow, procure enough for change of dyett, who live in great plenty other- 
wise, do reduce these peoples wants into a narrow compass. 

" The skirts and borders of Labrodore are hilly and mountainous on every 
side (a small part excepted); but the interior parts is covered with lakes and 
morassis to a wide extent, which affords an easy communication into all our 
principal rivers; but as above, these people have their food and rayment on so 
easy terms, that hardly one in twenty have ever taken the trouble to go to ours, 
or any of the French setlements. Indolence and idleness has a good share in 
this indifference: but surely tis a mark of great wisdom in them. 

" However, those few that has frequented the setlements, begin to like our 
commodities better; their women like our nicknacks and guegaws, and the men 
begin to love brandy, bread, and tobacco, so that a little address and manage- 
ment will bring these happy drones out of this profound lethargy. You'll say 
these people would, from their manner of life, have increased faster thart the 
other Indians; but the reason I gave before has, in some measure, prevented 
them; and now it will be a good motive to apply themselves in earnest to the 
use and defence of the gun, who, by the aid and convenience of our setlement 
at Richmond Fort, will be enabled to keep in a body, and repell force by force,, 
without being divided, or under a necessity to travell a great distance from- 
their familys, by having all those things brought to their own doors. 

" All the hilly and mountainous parts of Labrodore are occupied by the 
Usquemews, from the bay of Saint Lawrence on the southern, eastern, and 



THE MOUNTAINEER INDIANS. , 1 89 

They are called Montaignais by the French Canadians, 
Mountameers by the English, but referred to the Nas- 
copi tribe by the more intelligent of the latter. The 
tribe is a branch of the Algonkin stock, and is the only 
tribe known to inhabit the Labrador peninsula. They 
are more commonly met with at Rigolet, the trading 
port of the Hudson Bay Company up the Hamilton In- 
let (Aivektok Bay) ; they are also described by Hind, 
who encountered them at the mouth of the Moisie River, 
which empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Along 
this part of the coast they are rapidly diminishing : last 
winter many of them starved to death — several hundred, 
according to Cole's statement.* It now appeared that 
the large fire, the smoke of which we saw before reach- 
ing Dumplin Harbor, was from an area of over forty 
square miles situated back of where we were lying at 
anchor, and it burnt up some of the traps belonging to 

•northern borders, and all along the east main, to 56° and 57° latitude, and on all 
the islands adjacent, who are the seamen and fishermen on salt waters, as those 
are on inland lakes and fresh water rivers. Both one and other gelts great 
quantities of deer; but whales, seels, and sea-horses, are the principle support 
of the Usquemews; wether these retreat and retire to any distance from the sea- 
side uppon the approach of winter, or are wearid with their long summer day, 
and creep into their winters cave to rest, this is certain, we never saw but once 
or twice a single Usquemew in many years experience in the homeward bound 
passage, altho we have been detained by contrary winds at all their haunts. 

"The interior parts of Labrodore affords good shelter, and woods plenty for 
the northern Indians, who dress their victuals as we do; and dry'd fish supply 
the want of bread; they are very nasty in their persons, as all the Indians are; 
but not offensive in their filth, as the Usquemews." (Coat's Geography of 
Hudson's Bay, pp. 88-90.) 

* " Returns of the Hudson Bay Company show that about 4,000 Indians 
frequent the company's posts throughout the whole of Labrador; and this ac- 
count probably includes nearly their whole strength; nineteen twentieths of 
them are nominally Roman Catholics." (Encyclopaedia Brittanica, article 
Labrador.) Undoubtedly since this count was 'made their number has con- 
siderably diminished. 



190 A SUMiHER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

Cole's brother. The fire was ascribed to Indians, who 
probably set the woods in a blaze to drive out the game ; 
it was preceded by two unusually warm and dry days, 
at the time when the wind turned westerly and we were 
let out from our prison at Square Island. 

The icebergs were still neighborly, two large ones in 
the offing, one like a church steeple, the body submerged 
beneath the waves, while the other suggested the form 
of a huge squirrel sitting on his haunches with his tail 
over his back. According to Cole the snow and ice 
clears off from the coast at this point about the 20th of 
June ; at least that is the date when he leaves his winter 
house for his residence on shore ; the first of October, 
when the snow begins to fall, he moves back into the 
interior. 

The early part of the next day it stormed, blowing 
almost a gale from the north, with heavy rain ; we still 
held on to our rather exposed anchorage under a high 
point of land; not the least bight or indentation near at 
hand for harborage. In the afternoon the weather 
moderating, we got under way, and reached Strawberry 
Harbor at ten o'clock in the evening. On our way here 
we were boarded by an Eskimo in his kayak, who had 
been living in this bay during the summer. We first 
caught sight of the little craft two or three miles astern. 
It looked as it came up, bows on, like a large puffin sitting 
on the waves ; soon we could see the paddle describing 
a trajectory such as the wings of a puffin might make, and 
eventually we could recognize the human apart from the 
kayak, though an Eskimo seems an integral portion of 
his kayak, — one as human as the other. We throw 
over a rope, the kayak disgorges the Eskimo, the latter 



STRAWBERRY HARBOR. igi 

deftly climbs up over the rail hand-over-hand, and then 
we take aboard the kayak. 

Whether the little box of a harbor we swung in was 
called Strawberry* because it was but little larger than 
that berry, history does not record ; but it was the queer- 
est of the queer harbors we had entered, and by this 
time the monotony of leaving one harbor in the morn- 
ing and entering its counterfeit presentment the same 
evening had been a matter of remark by the grumblers 
aboard. There was not room enough to swing by our 
cable, so we made fast to the rocks ashore, which rose 
in cliffs reaching nearly to our topmasts. Another ves- 
sel shared these narrow quarters with us. She had had 
tolerably good luck in fishing, her hole being packed two 
or three feet deep with codfish. 

Deep and seemingly inaccessible to outside life as 
Strawberry Harbor promised to be, the next day, which 
was nearly calm and sunny, with a little breeze from the 
east, the mosquitoes, swarming from land and peering 
over into our -den, swooped down upon us and made life 
miserable. Ashore with my insect-net, they fairly drove 
me off the hunting-ground, which proved to be richer in 
arctic insect life than any yet experienced. 

So with the plants, showing that this spot was warmer 
and more protected than any harbor we had visited for 
the past two weeks. In the gulches and ravines the 
mountain-ash, alder, and willows grew to the enormous 
height of three feet ; the white spruce-trees were perhaps 
twenty-five feet high and one foot in diameter near the 
ground. This species of Abies, called in Maine the " cat" 

* This harbor is very near Ford's Bight or Nisbet's Harbor, and about ten 
miles from Anderson's house, i6 on the map of Eskimo Bay. 



192 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

or " skunk spruce," from its peculiar odor, is a more 
hardy tree than the black spruce and grows farther 
north. We have seen it growing luxuriously in Aroos- 
took County, Maine, but it is rarely found farther south 
than Mt. Desert. Violets were in bloom, and one or 
two were new to me ; Ledum palustre was now out of 
flower, while the Labrador tea {Ledutn latifolmni) was 
still in blossom, as were the bunch-berry, the mountain- 
trident, and the golden-thread ; Kalmia glauca was 
nearly done flowering, and the green fruit of the curlew- 
berry was of full size ; evidently the short Labrador sum- 
mer of six weeks had come. 

The rocks about us were syenitic, with numerous thin 
trap dykes, both vertical and horizontal ; some of them 
had weathered away, leaving deep vertical fissures ; where 
the horizontal dykes had disappeared, great blocks of 
syenite had fallen down, giving a dismantled appearance 
to the shore. The south side of the harbor ran in rock- 
terraced heights to an elevation of nearly five hundred 
feet, the huge rocky shelves falling away seaward as if 
laid and smoothed with cyclopean hands. Climbing 
about over these hills was almost impossible; streams 
rushed foaming down the ravines, some in sight, others 
only known by their rumbling, stifled roar under the 
bowlders concealing their bed. 

We learned that some Eskimos were spending the 
summer on an island hard by, and we tried to get one 
to pilot us to Hopedale, but were unsuccessful. Land- 
ing on another flat islet near by, where this or some 
other Eskimo, with perhaps his family, had been sum- 
mering in his tent or tepic of seal-skins, as evidenced by 
the circle of stones used to weigh down the bottom of 



SALMON. 193 

the tepic ; the marks of his temporary sojourn were in- 
dubitable, as witnessed by the stones which had been 
used to prop up his tent, the feathers and bones of sea- 
fowl he had shot or snared, and by the scattered seal 
bones and skins and other unmistakable signs of Eskimo 
occupancy and of Eskimo personal uncleanliness. 

July 27th and 28th we had a severe gale from the 
north, with snow and rain. All through the day the poor 
women on the other vessel had to do their cooking on 
deck without shelter. On the 28th the thermometer 
went down to 34° P., and we had nearly two inches of 
snow on our deck, while on the hills above us were 
drifts a foot deep which lasted for a day or two, as meas- 
ured by Mr. Willis, who explored on the following day 
the heights above us, and reported tracks of foxes in the 
snow. Two deer were also seen by some fishermen. 

On the 29th it cleared off, and at sunset the wind 
changed to the west. At last we picked up an Eskimo 
pilot for Hopedale. He had been partly educated, and 
was living with a Norwegian who had been on the coast 
for eleven years, .during seven of which he was in the 
employ of the Hudson Bay Company, his pay being 
fifty dollars a year. He brought us two salmon of a 
species I had not before seen, and which proved to be 
Salmo innnactLlattis of Storer. 

He nets more of these, which he calls salmon trout,. 
than of the true salmon, fishing for them with a twenty- 
foot net. The salmon come in usually on the 22d of 
July, and continue to run up the streams until about the 
20th of August. The " salmon trout" is found nearer 
shore, while the large true salmon is more abundant at 
the mouth of the bay than ten miles inland, where our 



194 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

Norwegian friend lived. He heard to-day, as he re- 
marked to us, a wolf howling, and supposed it had killed 
a deer, as " after feeding upon one they usually begin to 
howl." During the winter he shot fifteen deer, enough 
for the winter's supply of fresh meat. We found here 
fresh traces of the polar bear, an Englishman, named 
Tom Oliver, having shot a small one last winter. 

Part of this day was spent ashore, and on the side of 
a deep ravine we recognized an old acquaintance in a 
low white sfolden-rod like a familiar White Mountain 
species. The star-flower ( Trientalis ameruand), also a 
dwarfed yarrow {^Millefolmm) and an Andromeda were 
seen to-day in addition to the flowers we picked before 
the storm ; also a dandelion-like flower. More land 
shells (including the slug, Liniax agrestis) were found 
here than at any other point we visited; they occurred 
under spruce bark and chips in the damp verdure : all of 
them i^Pupa hoppii, Helix fabrzcu, and Vitrma angelicce) 
were Greenland shells, never before found south of that 
arctic land, and this fact bears witness to the interesting 
intermingling of Greenland life, animal and plant, with 
the Canadian or boreal forms indigenous in the forest- 
clad interior. There are in Labrador two climates, the 
arctic on the coast, the boreal or north-temperate in the 
interior. The Greenland and arctic forms occurring on 
the coast are the remnants of the glacial or arctic flora 
which were formerly spread over the entire territory of 
British America, New England, and the northern cen- 
tral United States during the supremacy of the ice, and 
which were, so to speak, pushed out to sea by the migra- 
tion northward of the temperate forms, only retaining 
their hold on the treeless and exposed islands and head- 




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Map of the Coast of Northern LAiiRAD 



(xAHer Reichel.) 

To /ace page tc 



THE COAST NEAR HOPEDALE. I95 

lands of this coast, which in nearly all respects are arc- 
tic and circumpolar, though Hopedale is in the latitude 
of Dublin. 

Another Greenland shell, a little fresh-water bivalve 
{Pisiduim steenbuchii^ not before known to live south 
of Greenland, was common in the pools, from which 
were arising caddis-flies and an Ephemera. A worker 
bumble-bee was also seen here for the first time, not- 
withstanding the cold weather of the past few days. 

Here were again to be observed the signs of the for- 
mer depression of land which marked the height of the 
Leda-clay epoch (the Champlain epoch of the books) ; 
beaches at least loo feet high, with two terraces, the 
lower one from fifteen to twenty feet above the sea-level. 
The afternoon of July 30th saw us safe in the harbor of 
Hopedale. A fresh, fair, west wind blowing all night 
let us out of our snug little haven at Strawberry. Our 
pilot simply knew the way to Hopedale, and some of 
the more dangerous rocks along our course. The wind 
was so fresh that our cautious captain took two reefs in 
the mainsail, but- it only blew strongly out of the bay, 
being an off-shore wind, and the force of the breeze di- 
minished sensibly as we went out to sea. The mountains 
and hills around our harbor and perhaps for a distance 
of ten miles northward, some of them 800 and 1,000 feet 
high, were spotted with snow, the remnants of the past 
storm. As we approached within twenty miles of 
Hopedale, the outer islands at the mouth of Kippokok 
Bay were seen to be more or less hummocky, some of 
them high and rounded, evidently composed of the lab- 
radoritic syenite, w^hile the mainland at the head of the 
bays was of Laurentian gneiss. Still as we advance 



196 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

northward the whole country, or at least the coast, grad- 
ually rises higher above the sea, which made me more 
than ever anxious to see how it culminated in the wild, 
crater-shaped, snow-streaked lofty mountains near Cape 
Chidley ; but it was not to be our good fortune to reach 
that promised land. 



CHAPTER IX. ' 



A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 



IV. HOPEDALE AND THE ESKIMO.'! 

About an hour before we reached Hopedale, we 
passed a high sugar-loaf-shaped island, "The Beacon," 
with four well-marked terraces carved by the weather or 
shore-ice when the sea stood at different levels in the 
ages gone by, as the land halted in its upward rise. This 




ROCK TERRACES ON "THE BEACON," 70O FEET ELEVATION, NEAR HOPEDALE. 



was the landmark for the Moravian vessels from London, 
and by boiling water on the summit it had been ascer- 
tained to rise 700 feet above the sea. The rock was evi- 
dently that variety of syenite containing labradorite and 
green hornblende. In the interior a few miles distant 
was to be seen a high elevation, broad and massive at the 
base, but conical or nipple-shaped at the summit, and 
rising perhaps 1,500 feet above the sea. 

As we entered, on a Saturday afternoon, the harbor 
of Hopedale, which is situated at the head of a deep, 

197 



198 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

broad bay or sound, we nearly overhauled the Moravian 
supply ship " Harmony," just out from London. She 
was a bark of 300 American tons, very neatly kept, thor- 
oughly well-appointed, and well-officered and manned, 
her chief officer, Captain Linklater, a Scotchman. As 
she approached the harbor and before we discovered the 
mission building ashore, she fired a salute from two nine- 
pounders, at the same time sending her flag up to half- 
mast : both announcing her arrival and signalling disas- 
ter — the death in London of Rev. Mr. Latrobe, Secre- 
tary of the Society of the United Brethren. A salute 
from a small gun near a flagstaff on the rocks not far 
from the mission, and an irregular volley from the fowl- 
ing-pieces of the Eskimos answered ; then a dory and a 
kayak put off from shore, followed by a heavy, clumsy 
boat with a square block tiller, which bore the three mis- 
sionaries, clad in seal-skin frocks with capotes, who 
greeted the others aboard with a kiss on each cheek. 
The boat's flag was also at half-mast, as the oldest mis- 
sionary, Superintendent Kruth, had died at Hopedale 
but a few days previous. The " Harmony" had brought 
over besides a missionary who had been absent for two 
years, the agent or supercargo, Herr Lintner, who had 
been educated as a civil engineer, and was the son of the 
owner of the vessel ; he visits the three mission stations^ 
and reports to the Society at home as to their condition 
and progress.* 

* This was the only vessel which visited Hopedale while we were there. 
Since that date this part of the coast has been visited by fishermen from New- 
foundland and Nova Scotia, attracted northward by the greater abundance of 
codfish. Dewitz states that up to the year 1S79 nearly 2,200 vessels had visited 
Hopedale, from 500 to 600 annually reaching the port, while in the year 1879 
800 vessels touched at Hopedale, and on one morning 72 vessels lay in Hope- 
dale Bay. 



ESKIMO WOMEN. 199 

Meanwhile we were boarded by a large delegation of 
the squat, square-faced aboriginals ashore, full of curios- 
ity and interest, quite ready to accept any offering from 
our dinner-table, or even the scullion's waste-pail, and 
examining our spars and deck with approving glances. 
We returned the visit, and it may be confessed that we 
fully reciprocated their interest in our surroundings'when 
we inspected their own. 

There are six Moravian settlements in Labrador, the 
oldest being Nain, which was founded in 1771 ; Okkak 
was founded in 1776; Hopedale in 1782; Hebron and 
Zoar in 1830. Hopedale is situated in lat. 55° 25', 
Nain in lat. 56° 25', Okkak in lat 57° 2,3', and Plebron in 
lat. 58° 50'. At these stations there were in all, in i860, 
twenty missionaries and about 1,400 Eskimos. Rama 
was founded a year or two after our visit. 

The new science of anthropology was not so generally 
cultivated in 1864 as now, and we took no notes of the 
height of the Eskimos at Hopedale and elsewhere ; but 
in "Science" for July 29, 1887, we find the following 
statements by Mr. W. A. Ashe as to the mean height 
of the Eskimo at North Bluff on Hudson Strait, taken 
from measurements of "60 families," the exact number 
of persons measured not being stated. The men aver- 
aged 5 feet, 3.9 inches, and the women approximately 5 
feet, in height. 

And here it may be said that the condition of the 
women, whether the effect of their semi-civilization and 
Christianization or not, was certainly not that of subjec- 
tion, but of normal equality. They were certainly 
sharper at a bargain than their husbands, and within 
doors, at least, appeared to be mistresses of the mansion. 



200 A SUxMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

The women's dress differs from that of the men in the 
long- tail to their jacket-like garment ; some wore an old 
calico dress-skirt over the original Eskimo dress, — a 
thin veneer of civilization typical perhaps of the educa- 
tion they had been receiving for the past few generations, 
which was not so thorough-going as not to leave external 
traces at least of their savage antecedents. But may this 
not be said of all of us ? For only a few centuries ago our 
ancestors were in a state of semi-barbarism, and the An- 
glo-Saxon race can date back to Neolithic Celts and 
bronze-using Aryan barbarians. However this may be, 
the Eskimos at Hopedale were a well-bred, kindly, in- 
telligent, scrupulously honest folk, whereas their ances- 
tors before the establishment of the Moravian mission- 
aries on this coast were treacherous, crafty, and murder- 
ous. To be shipwrecked on this inhospitable coast was 
esteemed a lesser evil than to fall into the hands of wan- 
dering bands of Labrador Eskimos. The natives have 
evidently been well cared for by the missionaries, kept 
from starvation in the winter, and their lives have been 
made nobler and better. Even in an Eskimo tepic life 
has been proved to be worth living. Fishermen and 
cruisers are (1864) not welcomed here, and it was not 
until a day or two had elapsed and the object of our ex- 
pedition made known that we were cordially welcomed- 

There were four missionaries at Hopedale : Brothers 
Shutt, Kreuchmer, Vollpracht, and Samuel Weiz, the 
latter, who died in 1888, a good botanist and interested 
in the zoology of the coast. They were now living 
with their families under one roof in the new mission 
house — a red-roofed yellow building of wood, of two 
stories and a half, a large, convenient, warm house — 





''^^^i00:^fSM^^ 



A Full-blooded Eskimo Fa.iily at Hopedalf, Labrador, 1864. 
(From a photograph by Bradford.) 

To face page 200, 



THE NORTHERN LIMIT OF TREES. 20I 

there being seven buildings in all, including the unfin- 
ished new chapel ; at a distance from the others was a 
small powder-house. The servants in and about the sta- 
tion were Eskimo, neat, cleanly, and intelligent. There 
was plenty of lumber, judging by a pile of spruce-logs, 
which were about fifty feet long and twenty inches in 
thickness at the butt."^ 

We were also told that the Eskimos had built and 
manned a schooner of fifty tons. The mission is impart 
a trading-post, but at present is paying only half its ex- 
penses ; the missionaries dealing in furs and curiosities, 
which they sell in London. Mr. Weiz kindly gave me 
a list of the plants and vertebrate animals of Labrador, 
accompanied with notes, and his herbarium was very 
complete in the plants of Okkak, which he said was 
warmer, more protected, and had a more luxuriant flora 



* The northern limit of trees on the Labrador coast appears from the state- 
ments of L. T. Reichel to be not far north of Hebron, as he says that while 
the extreme northern part of the coast is treeless, the bays south of Hebron 
are well wooded with spruce and larches, and south of this point with birches. 
Although situated considerably more to the south than Greenland, the winter 
is longer and the cold greater than in Greenland, since the southern extremity 
of Greenland is warmed by a branch of the Gulf Stream, while the winter 
climate of the Labrador coast is lowered by the floating ice borne by the 
Labrador current from Baffin's Bay. In Greenland the water becomes open 
in April, while in [Labrador the bays are not free from ice till the first of 
July. On the other hand, the summer months are considerably warmer 
than in Greenland, and hence there is a forest growth, since the interior of 
Greenland is buried in ice. In Dewitz's pamphlet it is stated that in the deep 
bays between Zoar and Hopedale birches occur, also willows, stunted bushes of 
the mountain-ash, and alders, until south of Hopedale the vegetation passes 
into the forest flora of Canada. But we observed that the outer islands are 
nearly bare from Cape Harrison to Hopedale, the shrubs and stunted trees 
mentioned only growing in protected valleys. Dewitz adds that there are rem- 
nants of forests on the coast, but that the missionaries have been unable to 
plant forests, and they think that the existing forest growth owes its origin to 
-an earlier, warmer period. 



202 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

than Hopedale. Mr. Vollpracht told me that a large 
fresh-water snail {Limncea, near elodes) was abundant in 
a lake at Okkak. The collection of birds' eggs was a 
good one, and they also had skulls of the polar and 
black bears and of seals, which they sold to us. I also 
purchased a valuable collection of insects, principally 
butterflies and moths, obtained at Okkak. We visited 
the rather large cemetery, well laid out and fenced in, 
situated in a level spot where the soil was deeper than 
elsewhere : at one end were the graves of the mis;sion- 
aries, over which memorial slabs were laid ; a large 
mound marked the last resting-place of Superintendent 
Kruth, while among the others was an infant's grave ; 
at the opposite end of the yard were the short graves of 
the Eskimos. 

There were six little gardens, each perhaps belonging 
to a separate family. They were laid out like those in 
the fatherland, with clumps of spruce and larches, em- 
bracing a summer-house, a rustic seat, and a grass-plot. 
There were also rows of hot-beds, where they rear let^ 
tuce from plants raised in the house, yielding them salad 
in May. Turnips were well forward, onions were in 
bud, currant bushes two feet high were in blossom, as 
well as potatoes, which were six inches high, and the 
rhubarb was quite luxuriant in its growth, its flowers 
having been open for some time. 

The Eskimos were ready enough to traflic, though 
slow at first to bring out their wares, which consisted of 
birds' eggs, principally those of robins and murres, 
models of kayaks and oomiaks, as well as sleds in 
bone and seal-skin. From one of them, named Caspar, 
a lame boy who had lived ten years in Hamilton Inlet 



EVENING PRAYERS. 203 

and knew a little English, I was told that a narwhale 
was seen many years ago on this coast. It appears that 
this polar animal occurs now as far south as Hudson's 
Strait. Captain Handy told me that on the north side 
of Hudson's Strait the narwhale commonly goes in 
herds of thirty. Malmgren, a Finnish author, says that 
the narwhale leaves Spitzbergen in summer for more 
northern and colder latitudes.* 

None of them, however, had ever seen a walrus, but 
the white bear was said to be not uncommon ; and he 
mentioned the wolverine as occurring in the neighbor- 
hood. • Showing Caspar the picture of the lobster in my 
Gosse's Zoology, he said it, with the shore crab, was not 
found here, but south of Grosswater Bay (Hamilton 
Inlet); the salmon (kavishilik) were taken in nets; he 
was also familiar with the starfish, which he called 
ougiak. 

At sunset the chapel bell rang for evening prayers, 
and all left their work or houses and made their w^ay to 
the sanctuary. The men and women sat separately and 
at opposite ends of the room, even entering by a sepa- 
rate door ; and the oldest members of the congregation 
sat back on the higher benches, probably to overawe the 
juveniles on the front seats ; although these must have 
been duly restrained by the presence of the seven mis- 
sionaries who sat against the opposite wall on the right 
side of the leader's desk, their seven wives on the left. 
The service was brief, lasting twenty minutes, consisting 
of an invocation or address in Eskimo, and a few chants 
to German tunes, the congregation joining in the music 

* Wiegmann's Archiv flir Naturgeschichte, 1S64, p. 96. 



204 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

of the organ, which was well played by an Eskimo boy. 
From the chapel all dispersed to their quarters, and the 
settlement long before dark was buried in profound 
silence. 

Sunday, the 31st July, was a warm, sunny day, unfor- 
tunately as much enjoyed by the mosquitoes and black- 
flies as by us. In the forenoon we went to the service, 
which was simple and brief, the natives not being 
wearied with a long discourse ; like the yesterday even- 
ing prayers it consisted simply of an invocation or ad- 
dress, congregational singing and the litany, and in half 
an hour the assembly dispersed. 

The day was observed by the natives and all others 
with more reverence than we have noticed in Lutheran 
countries. The evening by invitation was spent aboard 
the " Harmony." Captain Linklater, an unusually in- 
telligent man, was, as he told us, six weeks gn his voy- 
age from London here ; he generally first sights Cape 
Webuc, though steering for " The Beacon" below Hope- 
dale. 

In saihng from Hopedale to Nain the " Harmony" 
takes an inside course. Above this point the coast is still 
more deeply indented by bays and fjords, their mouths 
checked with islands which extend fifty miles or more out 
to sea. The captain is ordered by the company or gov- 
ernor to take two Eskimo pilots from each port ; he gen- 
erally leaves them to return when fifteen miles out from 
harbor, as they are unacquainted with the rocks and 
shoals. Navigation to Nain is represented to be difficult ; 
at one place the vessel has to double two points closing 
in one beyond the other. The captain while in harbor is 
-gradually making charts of the coast, which at best can 



THE FLOE-ICE. 20$: 

only be approximative ; the missionaries have also, by as- 
cending the highest points near their respective stations, 
taken the bearings of the islands about, Captain L. by a 
patent log taking the distance between them. * For ninety 
years a " Harmony" — the name being handed down 
to successive vessels — has made its annual voyage to 
Labrador, the missions having been established in Green- 
land in 1733 and first on this coast in 1771 ; dming that 
time but two men have been lost from the vessel, one 
of them having been drowned by upsetting in a kayak. 
From the hills east of the station the ice-field could 
be seen about ten miles out to sea, but bergs were visible 
all along the coast. Captain Linklater on this voyage 
encountered more ice than in any previous year of his 
service. He found the field to be eighty-five miles wide ; 
and from careful observations during a number of years 
judged the rate of travel of the floe past the coast at this 
point to be at the rate of twenty-seven miles a day, or a 
little over a mile an hour. During this summer the ice 
had, as we had observed, been running down the coast 
from June 2 2d to August 2 2d, though it actually began 
earlier and must have continued later than that. That 
the ice finally disappeared by melting rather than by 
sinking we believe, though the fishermen on the coast 
maintain that it finally sinks. The extent of the ice-fields 
therefore off the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland 
must have been this season not much less than 80,000 
square miles ; the effect of such a wet blanket on the 
coast may well be imagined. 

* The results of these surveys were embodied in a MS. map by the Rev. S. 
Weiz, and it was this map which was kindly loaned me by the Secretary, IMr. 
Latrobe, of the London ofBce, and used in compiling the map of Labrador in 
the present volume. 



206 A summer's cruise to NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

August I St was spent in geologizing, as it was cold 
and cloudy, with an easterly wind. The island on which 
Hopedale is situated is of the ordinary Laurentian gneiss, 
which behind the mission house is curiously contorted ; 
it is fine-grained, distinctly banded, with veins of quartz 
and of granite ; at one point it dipped about 60° W. 
with a N. W. and S. E. strike. There are a number 
of trap dykes, in places like slightly winding stairs or 
steps descending to the water's edge, justifying the 
term trap applied to this rock, which is from the Swedish 
'trappa, meaning a series of steps or stairs. 

The rocks are water-worn and terraced to the tops 
of the hills. Behind the mission house is a raised beach 
of large, loose, rounded sea-worn bowlders, generally two 
feet in diameter, and mostly concealed by the growth of 
Empetrum ; it is narrow and slopes down to a little 
bight east of the Eskimo village, and its shores are formed 
by what proved to be a raised sea-bottom. To our great 
surprise and delight this beach above and between tide- 
marks abounded in multitudes of deep-water shells with 
other fossils ; and I spent half the day in picking them 
up, renewing the search the next day. That it was an 
old sea-bottom which had been raised at least from 75 
to 100 feet, if not more, was proved by the habits of the 
shells, now living at the depth of from 15 to 20 fathoms 
off shore, and also by the quantities of nullipores encrust- 
ing the shells and pebbles, showing that the beach had 
not been disturbed since its elevation. Indeed it struck 
me, though I have no essential proof, that the coast of 
Labrador is now slowly rising, and this is also the opinion 
of Campbell (Frost and Fire). 

Returning to the vessel towards night, an active trade 



KAYAKING. ^ 20/ 

was carried on with the Eskimos to our mutual satisfac- 
tion ; we bartered our old clothes for sealskin boots, 
mittens, and miniature kayaks, etc. 

The two next days were warm and sunny, with westerly 
winds, and the time was mainly given to the entomology 
of the island, though the mosquitoes were excessively 
annoying. On the hills were the Chionobas butterfly, so 
wonderfully mimicking the colors of the lichens on the 
rocks. The little blue butterfly {Polyommatus Frank- 
linii) was very abundant here, resembling some moths 
when in flight. 

We made long calls upon the missionaries, finding 
them very cordial and pleasant, with much love of natural 
history. They returned our visit, and their wards, the 
Eskimos, swarmed over our vessel like flies. Always 
good-natured, without exception rigidly honest and up- 
right, they were a continual source of interest and amuse- 
ment. They lent us their kayaks, which are framed of 
spruce wood and covered with sealskin, and rather wider 
and therefore safer to row in than Greenland kayaks, 
which are framed .with bone. I found it easy enough to 
paddle in them, but difficult to keep the bows steady on 
the course, each stroke of th,e double-ended paddle caus- 
ing the bows to go too far one side ; they are by no means 
so safe, however, as a birch canoe. Some of the passen- 
gers and our crew paddled for a distance of one or two 
miles, and after a little practice made good kayakers. 

One day while rambling over the hills near the station 
I came upon a fissure in the rock, marked by -a pole, 
and loosely covered with a few flat stones. It contained 
two skeletons, presumably of an Eskimo man and woman. 

I hastily put the skull and bones into the bottom of 



2o8 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

my butterfly-net and covered them with grass ; on my 
way past the chapel I came plump upon a wedding party 
going away from the doors. The bride led the party^ 
clad in her old-time costume, with the addition of a calico 
skirt ; at the distance of a few paces followed the groom, 
while the friends straggled along behind. Without being 
asked too curious questions I carried my precious freight 
aboard, glad — to use a sepulchral simile — to kill two 
birds with one stone, i.e. to secure the last remains of 
an old-time Eskimo couple and to see a young and living 
couple so recently united. 

At Hopedale we understood the oldest person, the 
patriarch of the colony, to be a woman of seventy years r 
we saw her — a picture of ugliness which still haunts 
our memory. There were three Eskimos who were sixty 
years old. A man becomes prematurely old when forty- 
five years of age, as the hunters are by that time worn 
out by the hardships of the autumnal seal fishery. 



CHAPTER X. 

A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

V. THE RETURN VOYAGE TO BOSTON. 

On August 4th we bade farewell to Moravians and 
Eskimos ; and with deep regret that it was not possible 
for us to go farther north, at least to the 60th parallel 
of latitude, we weighed anchor and ran with a fresh west 
wind abeam to Thomas's or Maggovik Bay, where the 
Norwegian Andersen lives in a well-wooded bight. 
Andersen told me he had seen only one sort of caribou, 
and did not know of a " barren-ground" as distinguished 
from a "wood" caribou. He also said that the white 
and blue fox littered together, but that the blue variety 
was very rare. After dredging a while in fifteen fathoms 
on a muddy bottom, where the interesting Myriotrochtis 
was common, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon Mr. Brad- 
ford went with a boat's crew on a trading trip to 
Thomas's house. The wind being dead ahead we had 
to row all the way up, nearly thirty miles, and back, reach- 
ing the vessel at one in the night. We took a late sup- 
per at Mr. Thomas's hospitable house, and enjoyed a cup 
of tea with goat's milk and good bread. The house was 
comfortably situated near some quite sizable spruce-trees, 
with a flourishing garden near by. Mr. Thomas (for the 

site of his house see 1 7 on the map of Eskimo Bay) is 

209 



2IO A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

a trader in furs, of which he had two or three hundred 
dollars' worth on hand, and he professed to have more 
than he wanted to live on. This little trip gave me 
some idea of the country inland, as Thomas's Bay is 
thirty miles deep, forming a broad sound, with few is- 
lands except at the mouth. Both sides of the bay are 
thickly wooded, with mountain summits rising bare and 
gray through the covering of dark green coniferous trees, 
the birches or poplars not being abundant enough to en- 
liven the sombre hues of an evergreen Labrador forest. 
The contours of the ridges and hills were regular, the 
country was rather low, the scenery on the whole monot- 
onous ; and such, I conceive, are the features of the in- 
terior of the Labrador plateau, though diversified with- 
lakes and deep river valleys. Both sides of the bay- 
were terraced : on the north side were three long and 
regular terraces ; those on the south side were less regu- 
lar and much shorter ; one formed a point of land per- 
haps a hundred feet high and descending into the water 
by three terraces. Farther up, the slope of the hill was 
paved with large sea-worn bowlders, for the most part 
covered over and hidden by the vegetation. At the 
mouth of the bay are also three naked terraces, the 
longer one winding up; following the shore, a growth of 
trees partially concealing it from sight. The return row 
down the bay and the sunset effects were extremely fine 
I cannot attempt to describe them. How the scenery 
at this point appeared to a better artist in words than 
myself may be realized by the following extract from 
one of Rev. Mr. Wasson's papers in the Atlantic 
Monthly of May, 1865 : 

" In the early afternoon a dense haze filled the sky. 



A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. ' 211 

The sun, seen through this, became a globe of glowing 
ruby, and its glade on the sea looked as if the water had 
been strewn, almost enough to conceal it, with a crystal- 
line ruby dust, or with fine mineral spicules of vermilion 
bordering upon crimson. The peculiarity of this ruddy 
dust was that it seemed to possess body, and, while it 
glowed, did not in the smallest degree dazzle, — as if the 
brilliancy of each ruby particle came from the heart of it 
rather than from the surface. The effect was in truth 
indescribable, and I try to suggest it with more sense of 
helplessness than I have felt hitherto in preparing these 
papers. It was beautiful beyond expression, — any ex- 
pression, at least, which is at my command. 

" Such a spectacle, I suppose, one might chance to see 
anywhere, though the chance certainly never occurred 
to me before. It could scarcely have escaped me through 
want of attention, for I could well believe myself a child 
of the sun, so deep an appeal to my feeling is made by 
effects of light and color : light before all. 

" But the atmosphere of Labrador has its own secret 
of beauty, and charms the eye with aspects which one 
may be pardoned for believing incomparable in their 
way. The blue of distant hills and mountains, when ob- 
served in clear sunshine, is subtile and luminous to a 
degree that surpasses admiration. I have seen the Cam- 
den Heights across the waters of Penobscot Bay when 
their blue was equally profound ; for these hills, beheld 
over twenty miles or more of sea, do a wonderful thing; 
in the way of color, lifting themselves up there through 
all the long summer days, a very marvel of solemn and 
glorious beauty. The ^Egean Sea has a charm of at- 
mosphere which is wanting to Penobscot Bay, but the 



212 'A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

hue of its heights cannot compare with that of the Cam- 
den Hills. Those of Labrador, however, maintain their 
supremacy above even these — above all. They look 
frozen sky. Or one might fancy that a vast heart or 
core of amethyst was deeply overlaid with colorless 
crystal, and shone through with a softened, lucent ray. 
Such transparency, such intense delicacy, such refine- 
ment of hue ! Sometimes, too, there is seen in the deep 
hollows between the lofty billows of blue, a purple that 
were fit to clothe the royalty of immortal kings, while 
the blue itself is flecked as it were with a spray of white 
light, which one might guess to be a precipitate of sun- 
shine. 

"This was wonderful ; but more wonderful and most 
wonderful was to come. It was given me once and once 
again to look on a vision, an enchantment, a miracle of 
all but impossible beauty, incredible until seen, and 
even when seen scarcely to be credited, save by an act of 
faith. We had sailed up a deep bay and cast anchor in 
a fine large harbor of the exactest horse-shoe shape. It 
was bordered immediately by a gentle ridge some three 
.hundred feet high, which was densely wooded with 
spruce, fir, and larch. Beyond this ridge to the west 
rose mountainous hills, while to the south, where was 
the head of the harbor, it was overlooked immediately 
by a broad, noble mountain. It had been one of those 
white-skied days when the heavens are covered by a uni- 
form filmy fleece, and the light comes as if it had been 
filtered through milk. But just before sunset this fleece 
was rent, and a river of sunshine streamed across the 
ridge at the head of the harbor, leaving the mountain 
beyond, and the harbor itself with its wooded sides, still 



A LABRADOR LANDSCAPE. 21 3 

in shadow. And where that shine fell, the foliage 
changed from green to a glowing, luminous red-brown, 
expressed with astonishing force, — not a trace, not a 
hint of green remaining ! Beyond it the mountain pre- 
served its whited gray ; nearer, on either side, the woods 
stood out in clear green ; and, separated from these by 
the sharpest line, rose this ridge of enchanted forest. 
You will incline to think that one might have seen 
through this illusion by trying hard enough. But never 
were the colors in a paint-pot more definite and deter- 
mined. 

" This was but the beginning. I had turned away, and 
was debating with myself whether some such color, seen 
on the Scotch and English Kills, had not given the hint for 
those uniform browns which Turner in his youth copied 
from his earlier masters. When I looked back, the 
sunshine had flooded the mountain, and was bathing it 
all in the purest rose-red. "Bathing it? No, the moun- 
tain was solidly converted, transformed to that hue ! The 
power, the simplicity, the translucent, shining depth of 
the color were all that you can imagine, if you make no 
abatements and task your imagination to the utmost. 
This roseate hue no rose in the garden of Orient or 
Occident ever surpassed. Small spaces were seen where 
the color became a pure ruby, which could not 
have been more lustrous and intense had it proceeded 
from a polished ruby gem ten rods in dimension. Color 
could go no farther. Yet if the eye lost these for a mo- 
ment, it was compelled somewhat to search for them, — 
so powerful, so brilliant was the rose setting in which 
thev were embosomed. 

"One must remember how near at hand all this was 



214 A summer's cruise TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

— not more than a mile or two away. Rock, cavern, clifif, 
ail the details of rounded swell, rising peak, and long- 
descending' slope could be seen with entire distinctness. 
The mountains rose close upon us, broad, massive, real 
— but all in this glorious, this truly ineffable transforma- 
tion. It was not distance that lent enchantment here» 
It was not lent; it was real as rock, as Nature ; it con- 
fronted, outfaced, overwhelmed you ; for enchantment 
so immediate and on such a scale of grandeur and gor- 
geousness — who could stand up before it ? 

" In_sailing out of the bay next day, we saw this and 
the neighbor mountain under noon sunshine (lat. 55° 
20'). They were the handsomest we saw, apparently 
composed in part of some fine mineral, perhaps pure 
labradorite. In the full light of day these spaces 
shone like polished silver. My first impression was that 
they must be patches of snow, but a glance at real spots 
of snow corrected me. These last, though more dis- 
tinctly white, had not the high, soft, silver shine of the 
mineral. Doubtless it was these mountain-gems which, 
under the magic touch of sunset light, had the evening 
before appeared like vast rubies, blazing amidst the rose 
which surrounded them. 

" And this evening the spectacle of the preceding 
one was repeated, though more distantly and on^a larger 

scale. Ph thought it the finer of the two. Far away 

the mountain height towered, a marvel of aerial blue, 
while broad spurs reaching out on either side were 
clothed, the one in shiny rose-red, the other in ethereal 
roseate tints superimposed upon azure ; and farther 
away, to the southeast, a mountain range lay all in 
solid carmine along the horizon, as if the earth blushed 



- . AN ARCTIC PTEROPOD. 21$ 

at the touch of heaven. . . . All the wildness and 
waste, all the sternest desolations of the whole earth, 
brou<jht too^ether to wed and enhance each other, and 
then relieved by splendor without equal, perhaps, in the 
world, — that is Labrador." 

Nearly all the next day was spent in beating down 
the coast, finding ourselves at evening off our old haven, 
Strawberry Harbor, which we did not enter, but re- 
mained outside of it, holding on to the rocks in twenty- 
five fathoms with our kedge. We lay over the edge of 
a submarine precipice, or, as I supposed, a rock terrace 
or shelf like those ashore ; for just before anchoring the 
lead reached a depth of forty fathoms, showing quite 
plainly that the terraced character of the rock, which 
extends up the shore for a distance of perhaps 300 or 
400 feet, also extends beneath the ocean to a depth of 
at least fifty fathoms or three hundred feet, thus con- 
clusively proving that the coast had once been much 
higher than at present, and also showing how little the 
floe-ice had smoothed down the ocean-bottom near 
shore. 

The next day we reached, but did not double. Cape 
Webuc (Harrison), as it was called, in the afternoon, and 
Mr, Bradford spent every available moment in painting 
icebergs. In the calm water we met with great num- 
bers of that interesting and curious arctic pteropod, 
Limacina helicina ; drawing up some in a bucket and 
placing them in a glass of sea-water, the beautiful move- 
ments of these delicate forms could be seen. They were 
like winged sweet-peas — the shape of the body and color 
suggesting the resemblance. It had not previously been 
recorded as occurring south of the Greenland seas. The 



2l6 A summer's cruise to northern LABRADOR. 

fishermen, who had never seen them before this summer, 
said that the cod fed on them, and injured the fishery, 
but all this was the merest nonsense. We lay to among 
the icebergs all night, Bradford vigorously and indefat- 
igably at work every spare moment, up at three o'clock 
in the morning, and painting the next day until a fog 
closed down upon the scene early in the afternoon. 

The succeeding day (the 8th) we ran into Sloop Har- 
bor, where we dredged in ten fathoms and drew up an 
interesting arctic Isopod crustacean. 

On the 9th we entered Indian Harbor, where lived 
a Mr. Norman, who was carrying on a-n extensive fishery 
here, though this year it was, as everywhere else, a 
failure, the men at Sloop Harbor having to go thirty 
miles for bait. The salmon fishery was also pronounced 
equally abortive, only two hundred tierces having been 
netted in all Hamilton Inlet, whereas that amount is 
usually taken at a single point. 

The scenery here — trap-hills and dykes giving some 
strange effects — was unusually picturesque, and Bradford 
was busy making studies and photographs. The gneiss 
is whitish in color, gradually sloping in rocky terraces to 
the shore, and extending under the fiord, the bowlder- 
laden, smooth bottom being perfectly visible at the 
depth of six or eight fathoms ; and I have little doubt it 
could have been distinguished at the depth of ten or 
even fifteen fathoms. 

Here for the first time on this coast were to be seen, 
undoubted glacial marks. They occurred on the smooth 
ice-worn rocks about twenty-five feet above the harbor, 
not far from Norman's house, on the southern side of 
the tickle. They were lunate impressions varying in 



GLACIAL MARKS. 21^ 

length from five to twelve inches, describing a curve from 
three to nine inches deep, and at the bottom of the 
* crescent sunk an inch deep in the rocks. The hollows 
of the crescents opposed the northwest, showing that 
the glacier which produced such marks must have 
moved from the land, filling the great bay of which the 
fiord was an arm, and were sculptured in a smooth, 
highly polished whitish gneiss. The rocky shore was 
above the reach of the weaves, but dampened by the 
surf and spray, so that the surface was entirely free of 
lichens, which covered the rock farther up from the 
water's edge. 

That these were genuine glacial marks was evident 
to me at the time, and afterward sufficiently proved in 
my own mind when standing on the summit of Bald- 
face Mountain near Gilead, Me., where the lunate or 
crescentiform marks are abundant. 

Ice marks have also been noticed by Campbell in his 
" Frost and Fire." * 

* "The coast is now rising between St. John's in Newfoundland and Cape 
Harrison in Labrador. Rocks have been marked and the marks have risen ; boats 
now ground on solid rocks where they floated twenty years ago; rocks which 
were seldom seen now seldom disappear at high tides; harbors are shoaling; 
beds of common shells are found high above the sea; raised beaches are seen 
on hill-sides in sheltered corners; and blocks of foreign rock are perched upon 
the summits of islands and on the highest hills near the coast. The rocks are 
much weathered, and very few striae were found. Those which were found 
aimed up-stream. At Indian Island, lat. 53° 30', near the lat. of Hull, they 
pointed into Davis's Straits, at a height of 400 feet above the sea; at Red Bay, 
in the Straits of Belle Isle, they aimed N. 45° E. at the sea-level. In winter 
the sea is frozen near the coast to a thickness of eighteen inches or more; in 
spring the northern ice comes down in vast masses. In 1864 this spring drift 
was 150 miles wide, and it floated past Cape Race. From a careful examination 
of the water-line at many spots it appears that bay-ice grinds rock, but does not 
produce striation. The tops of conical rocks have been shorn off. The shape 
of the country is a result of denudation. No matter what the dip and fracture of 
the stone may be, the coast is generally worn into the shape known as ' roches 
moutonnees.' " (Vol. ii. p. 236.) 



2l8 A SUMMER'S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

The afternoon of the loth we sighted the familiar Out- 
lines of Tub Island. The wind vvas southeast, and the 
next day it was too stormy to allow us to run out ; and* 
early in the succeeding day a dry northeast gale raged, 
but cleared off sufficiently in the afternoon to allow us 
to sail, in three hours, twenty-four miles to Dumplin 
Harbor, where dredging was profitable, though it was 
cold work hauling in the rope in the northeast wind. 

The next day we beat against a southeast wind about 
twenty miles down to Cateau Harbor, passing numerous 
headlands on which raged a fine surf. The dredging in 
this harbor, where the sea-bottom was sandy and prolific 
in worms, shells, and Echinoderms, was excellent ; 
among other rarities we hauled up specimens of the 
arctic holothurian Myriotrochus Rinkii, and a smaller 
simpler sea-cucumber, the Ettpyrgus scaber, more like a 
small faded Martynia than a cucumber. 

The 14th and 15th continued to be stormy, the wind 
northerly, with more or less fog, bergs and floating ice, 
making it dangerous sailing. We however got as far as 
Indian Tickle, where was the largest and best appointed 
fishing establishment we had yet visited, belonging to Mr. 
M. H. Warren, who lives in London during the winter, 
spending the summer here, where he employs two hun- 
dred and fifty men. Here the salmon fishery had been a 
failure, and the fishermen complained of the " black stuff" 
in the water, the delicate and interesting Limacina — 
which they declared "poisoned the fish." 

At noon of the i6th, when the fog lifted, a northerly 
wind carried us into Domino Harbor. We found that 
there was some trouble at the " rooms" here about paying 
duties on produce brought upon this coast by traders. 



CURLEWS. 219 

There being no representative from Labrador, which, 
however, is politically a part of Newfoundland, it was 
claimed that there should be no duties ; they were there- 
fore paid under protest to the judge and collector, James 
Winter, Esq., who had published under date of Nov. 
1 2th, 1863, a report entitled " Impolicy and Objection- 
able Nature of Levying Duties upon Bread and Biscuit 
Imported from Hamburgh. By James Winter." 

It appears that he had left Newfoundland (St. John's) 
June 15th, and was prevented by the ice from reaching 
Blanc Sablon before the 20th of July ; whei^ he reported 
that there were forty vessels, of which thirty-five sailed 
from Nova Scotia, the remainder being vessels belonging 
to the "rooms," and which brought out salt and manu- 
factured goods from England. This harbor (Blanc 
Sablon) is perhaps the most important port on the Labra- 
dor coast. According to Winter's report the trade at 
Blanc Sablon is very extensive, consisting of two large 
supplying and fishing establishments belonging to Jersey, 
Messrs. Boutellier and De Quetteville & Co., and two 
smaller houses, also from Jersey, engaged in the fishery. 
This is the chief place of resort of the large number of 
fishing- vessels from Nova Scotia and other colonies 
which annually arrive at Labrador. 

The 17th was spent in harbor at Domino, which to 
the geologist is one of the most interesting points on the 
coast. While walking over the barren Domino gneiss 
worn down by the glaciers, a flock of twenty-five curlews 
flew overhead, but they were late, as was everything else 
this year. 

The 1 8th we set sail from Domino Run for Henley 
Harbor in the face of a southerly storm, and beat to 



220 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

windward all day in the fog and rain, making about 
thirty miles. We passed many fine icebergs, some of 
them of magnificent proportions, moving down the coast 
in a stately way, while others were left stranded close in- 
shore. 

We remained outside in the fog through the night 
and early part of the next day ; took a northerly storm 
in the afternoon, and lay to during the night for fear of 
encountering the bergs or pieces of floating ice. 

We here saw in a large school of humpback and fin 
whales what* Captain Handy pronounced to be a sperm- 
whale by its " spout," which formed a single short stream 
of vapor curling over in front from the blow-hole, which 
is situated at the end of the nose. Mr. Pike (at Square 
Island) told us that a school of nine sperm-whales used 
to pass annually up and down the coast, but that now 
only five of them were remaining ; we may have seen 
one of the five. 

After a very uncomfortable night, having heaved to 
in the darkness in a heavy swell and calm to avoid col- 
liding with the ice, which in scattered bergs and floes 
surrounded us, we finally on the 20th ran before a fresh 
northeasterly gale into Henley Harbor. 

Sunday the 21st was, after the fog had cleared away in 
the morning, a very pleasant day, though towards night 
the easterly wind again brought in the fog. Colonel 
Amory and myself went over to an island on the west 
side of the harbor, where a recent severe gale, in which 
three vessels had been driven ashore, had washed off the 
soil so as to disclose some graves supposed to be those 
of Eskimos. We dug into them, finding a few bones 
and pieces of flannel ; the former were too much decayed 



ESKIMO GRAVES. 221 

to be of any value. An under-jaw given me by a man 
who lived near by and who had taken it from the graves 
had double teeth (sic) all around, the front teeth being 
worn down to the gums, the two jaws not overlapping 
(this being an Eskimo characteristic) ; the jaw resembled 
those of the skulls from Hopedale. There were several 
graves formed by natural fissures in the rocks, covered 
over by a layer of stones, with soil heaped over them, 
each forming a sort of natural dolmen. No one knew 
about them, but it was supposed that they may have been 
the graves of those killed in a battle of the Eskimos with 
the Indians. Battle Point, a little way up the coast, 
commemorates a sanguinary fight between these two 
races of Labrador aboriginals. 

I now learned that the old fort situated on a bluff on 
the terrace previously described was built by an early 
settler named Greville, who held out one winter against 
the wiles of the Indians until, during a deep snow-storm 
which barred up the cannon of the fort and choked up 
the embrasures, the dusky assailants scaled the walls and 
gained entrance within. Our informiant said that Greville 
wrote a history of Labrador. Near the fort was a circular 
area paved closely with cobble-stones, but nearly over- 
grown with Empetrum, which was said to have been the 
foundation of a Nascopi wigwam, but was more probably 
of Eskimo origin. 

The 2 2d was a fine day but nearly calm, and the fore- 
noon was spent with the insect-net in hand. The cur- 
lews were quite abundant, perhaps a hundred being seen. 
After dinner we hauled up anchor, and Bradford went 
out in search of icebergs. Two small bergs were seen 
near the southern end of Belle Isle and farther down the 



222 A SUMMERS CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

Strait ; one of them broke to pieces during the night, 
and we afterwards saw. the fragments floating upon the 
water some miles inshore. We lay all night becalmed 
six or seven miles from shore, drifting slowly down the 
Strait with the Labrador current ; before night I dredged 
in from forty to fifty fathoms on a hard, pebbly bottom, 
bringing up besides the common red seaweed {Ptilota) 
only a shrimp or two. 

Towards noon of the following day a steady easterly 
breeze carried us down the Strait, and we lay to in the 
fog all night, until after breakfast of the 24th it lifted 
somewhat and we found ourselves near Whale Island, 
three miles west of Whiteley's, and by eleven had for- 
tunately worked into the harbor of Salmon Bay off John 
Goddard's house near Caribou Island. We went to Rev. 
Mr. Carpenter's mission house for our letters, and were 
glad enough to accept his hospitality that night, not only 
as a pleasant change from sleeping in a bunk, but to 
renew an agreeable acquaintance. 

I collected more Quaternary fossils from the beach, 
though it rained and blew hard all day. We learned 
that the weather here had been pleasanter than "to the 
nor'ard," and that though the cod fishery had been " bad," 
it was now beginning to " look up." The stormy season 
was now about to set in, and it was high time that such 
craft as ours should leave the coast. No sail-boats can 
be used here with safety after the middle of September, 
the autumn winds are so gusty, with calms and sudden 
flaws. Only the small sails of the Newfoundland vessels 
and their large crews enable them to coast along this 
region after that date. 

On the 25th we fairly got under way for home,. 



THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS. 223 

taking the tail end of yesterday's storm, though before 
the anchor was weighed I did some good dredging, 
bringing up among other notable creatures Tritonof7isus 
cretaceus. On the whole the Strait of Belle Isle pre- 
sented the most varied and rich dredging grounds I met 
with on the coast. We now had before us a run of 340 
miles from Salmon Bay to the Gut of Canso, it being 80 
miles from Bird Rock to the latter strait. At about five 
in the afternoon of the 27th the wind hauled into the 
southeast and freshened into a gale of wind during the 
night ; it was very thick, but there was no rain. We 
lost our reckoning and came near running ashore between 
Bird Rock and Byron Island, making seven fathoms^ 
sounding twice ; moreover, the forecastle stove upset, 
and the floor got on fire, so that between the danger of 
shipwreck and of fire we had an anxious night. 

On Sunday morning, the 28th, we ran under jib and 
reefed mainsail past Bird Rock to the westward of the 
Magdalen Islands, just seeing land through the thick rain 
and mist and driving spray, and part of the time a cold 
sleet. The water came in over our rail ; things above 
and below were knocked about a good deal, and some 
bilge-water leaked into the cabin. At 2 p.m., however,, 
the gale broke, the rain abated, and after a while the 
sun broke through the clouds and lighted up, intensify- 
ing the rich red hues of the long, low shores of the 
Magdalen Islands. Here for the first time we saw the 
fish hawk, while the gannets, glorious birds while on 
the wing, were diving from far aloft for mackerel, or 
soaring up among the low rain-clouds. The 29th was 
warm and pleasant, and we passed many sails, some 
going to the Magdalen Islands, but most of them converg- 



224 A SUMMER S CRUISE TO NORTHERN LABRADOR. 

ing like a flock of sea-birds towards the Gut of Canso. 
About ten o'clock in the forenoon we lost sie^ht of 
Deadman's Island, the southernmost point of the Mag- 
dalens, and at two o'clock in the afternoon sighted the 
Prince Edward's Islands, and soon after espied Cape 
Breton Island. 

We expected to reach Port Mulgrave early the next 
morning, but our hopes of letters, papers, fresh potatoes, 
and beef on the morrow were dashed to the ground, as 
soon after sunset we were becalmed and had to come to 
anchor within six miles of that delectable haven. We 
got into Port Mulgrave the next morning, when six of 
our passengers left to return home overland. 

We left Port Mulgrave on the morning of the ist 
September, passed Halifax light at eight o'clock in the 
next evening, and at half-past seven in the evening of 
the 3d sighted Thatcher Island light, and ran up to our 
pier at Boston the next morning. 

A few words as to the scientific results of our voyage. 
Although we failed to reach Cape Chidley and to see the 
higher Moravian mission stations and Eskimos, or to do 
much dredging in water over fifty fathoms in depth, yet 
every possible facility was afforded me by Mr. Bradford, 
and the results of the voyage were perhaps of some service 
to science. Our geological notes of the coast were 
fuller than any yet published; over seventy-five raised 
beaches were discovered ; glacial phenomena of interest 
were observed, and the fact of the recent glaciation of 
the northeastern part of the Labrador peninsula was 
for the first time proved. Dredgings were made among 
the islands from Mecatina to Hopedale, and a consider- 
able number of new species of marine invertebrates, as 



ib-SO'^ 






oX? KOJlxrtakaoah 
"5S H500I 












Labrador. (From the British Admiralty Map No. S63.) 

To /a(e fage 225 



RESULTS OF THE VOYAGE. 225 

well as insects, secured, while it was made evident that 
the polar fauna and flora, both land and marine, extends 
southward into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, many inter- 
esting arctic forms occurring which had never before 
been dredged south of Baffin's Bay ; valuable data were 
also obtained showing that the life along the coast of 
Maine during the Leda epoch of the glacial period was 
nearly identical with that of the Labrador coast, and 
that the alpine fauna and flora of Mt. Washington in 
New Hampshire is a remnant of the Labrador assem- 
blage of plants and animals ; notes of interest on the 
distribution of the fish and niammals were obtained, par- 
ticularly of the walrus, white bear, and narwhale, while 
the collections of insects were tolerably complete, en- 
abling us to compare the Labrador insect fauna with 
that of Norway, Sweden, and the Alps of Switzerland. 

A voyage to the Labrador coast is an exceedingly 
healthful one ; its interest to the sportsman would be 
■enhanced if, in a steam-yacht and launches, the salmon 
streams could be explored and the game reached. But 
for lovers of grand coast scenery, famous for its peculiar 
wildness and far-reaching desolation, and which is only 
inferior to that of Norway, we recommend a cruise to 
Northern Labrador. 



CHAPTER XL 

RECENT EXPLORATIONS. 

Of late years fresh attention has been paid to the ex- 
ploration of the Labrador Peninsula. Dr. Franz Boas- 
has pubhshed in "Science" for Feb. 17, 1888, "Notes 
on the Geography of Labrador," which contains refer- 
ence to explorations in this country undertaken within 
a few years. Dr. Boas, it appears to us, erroneously 
states that the MS. map by Rev. S. Weiz, which we 
used in the compilation of the map in the present vol- 
ume (originally published in the Bulletin of the Ameri- 
can Geographical Society), "was published in January^ 
1869, in the Missionsblatt aus der Briidergemeinde.'" 
The MS. map loaned us by the Rev. Dr. Latrobe must 
have been a later one, with corrections, as it differs in 
a number of essential points, as may be seen if any 
one will examine the copy of the Moravian map pub- 
lished in " Science," and also previously in the Missioiis- 
blatt, with that in this book ; for example, Weiz's 
earlier published map represents Killinek, near Cape 
Chidley, as one large island, whereas in our map the 
Killinek of 1869 is represented by two large islands. 
Also, Nachvak Inlet, Saeglek Bay, and the inlet on 
which Hebron. is situated are very different in the twa 

* This map is here reproduced, thanlcs to the publishers of " Science," 

226 




^Map of the Northern Extremity of Labrador. (After VVeiz. From "Science.") 

To face page 226. 



THE INTERIOR OF LABRADOR. 22/ 

maps ; while no mountain ranges were inserted in the 
London MS. map of Mr. Weiz. 

Our knowledge of the interior of Northern Labrador 
has been somewhat extended by Dr. R. Koch, who 
wintered in Nain m 1882-83, his brief but interesting 
account being published in the Detitsche Geographische 
Blatter {^d.xid.Wl. Heft 2, 1884, pp. 151-163). The 
Eskimos in the spring go after reindeer in sledges from 
Nain to the plateau of the interior, which is reached 
after a journey of four or five days, at the rate of thirty 
English miles a day, through fiord-like valleys. After 
one or two days more the height of land is reached. 
This water-shed approaches the shore in the northern 
part of the peninsula, being only one day's journey dis- 
tant from Rama, which is the northernmost Moravian 
station, being . situated in lat. N, 58° 52' 54 . From 
this water-shed arise the rivers Koaksoak and Kangerd- 
lualuksoak (George River), which flow into Ungava 
Bay. This water-shed terminates in Killinek, and its 
outliers form the Button Islands. The narrower the 
mountainous district becomes, the hio-her it is. Near 
Hopedale the mountains, so far as Koch could see from 
looking inland, rise only a few hundred feet ; while at 
Nain the mountains clos^ by the sea are from 800 to 
1,200 feet high. The Kiglapait, or Saw-teeth Mountains, 
between Nain and Okkak, have an elevation, of several 
thousand feet (2,000, according to the British Admi- 
ralty chart). Kaumajat (Shining Mountain), situated 
south of Hebron, reaches this height (see p. 9). Al- 
though Koch has added nothing materially new to the 
information given in the first chapter of this book, we 
may add that he states that north of Hebron the coun- 



228 RECENT EXPLORATIONS. 

try is alpine in character, the mountains rising almost 
vertically from the sea ; but although the peaks attain 
a great height, there are no ice-fields and shining snow- 
clad peaks ; at the most, snow-fields and miniature 
glaciers. Deep, narrow fiords (Sorviluck, Nullatarkok, 
and Nachvak) cut into the coast, which is not along 
here sheltered by islands fi-om the heavy swell of the 
ocean. While south of Hebron numerous islands lie 
scattered off the mouths of the bays, northerly from 
Komaktorvik there are numerous islands and very dan- 
gerous cliffs, the Naviarutsit and Nuvurutsit, which ex- 
tend up to Ikkerasak Torksuk, viz., the great thorough- 
fare, abounding in whirlpools, of the Eskimo to Un- 
gava Bay. 

Near Rama, Koch ascended a mountain 2,600 feet 
in height. He describes the scene as very grand : " At 
my feet I saw the deep, bluish-green fiord surrounded 
by steep, wall-like cliffs. The mountains were covered 
with shrubs colored red by the first frost of the season. 
To the left spreads the dark-blue ocean, with its green- 
ish-white icebergs. On the opposite side of the fiord, 
and towards the west, extended steep and ragged moun- 
tains and narrow, gorge-like valleys, in one of them a 
dark lake, the water of which, black as ink, reflected 
the high peaks. In the interior I saw mountains rising 
to still greater heights, and covered with fresh snow, 
extending north and south as far as I could see. The 
highest points of this range are opposite the island of 
Aulatsivik, and reach elevations of from 8,000 to 9,000 
feet. While mountains less than 1,500 or 2,000'feet in 
height are rounded, and bear evidence of having been 



LABRADOR MOUNTAINS AND RIVERS. 229 

covered by glaciers, the ragged forms of the higher 
mountains show no such signs." 

All the lower mountains hafve rounded, often smoothly 
polished, summits, and are covered with numberless frag- 
ments of other stones, differing greatly in size, and not 
arranged into moraines, but scattered over mountains 
and valleys, and often lying in the strangest positions. 
The summits of the highest mountains, on the contrary, 
are split by the frost into sharp, rugged, enormous 
teeth. 

Koch then describes a typical valley near Nain, one near 
the Kauk (the Cliff), into which flows the Kaubkonga 
(Kauk River). Passing out from the mouth of the 
winding valley, the stream, often broken into rapids, 
ends in a water-fall about forty feet high, which plunges 
into a lake, the Ekkalulik (viz., the place where there 
are trout), into which two streams open, the Kaubkonga 
and the Jordan. The two rivers flow by rapids out 
of different lakes, the Jordan out of the Tessialuk 
(Breeches Lake of the missionaries), the Kaubkonga 
out of the Tachardlek (Star Lake). Beyond these are 
four other lakes, connected by short streams broken 
into rapids and cataracts, and which lead up to the 
Kairtoksoaks, where the streams take their origin. 
The Kaubkonga is a relatively strong stream, but is 
a type of all the Labrador rivers, being a chain of lakes 
connected by rapids or cataracts. " All the streams, so 
far as I have observed, at least those which flow into 
the Atlantic Ocean, have this peculiarity : evidently the 
corroding action of the water during the short summer 
has not not been sufficient during the short time which 



230 RECENT KXPLORATIUNS. 

has elapsed since the melting' away of the g-lacial cover- 
ing to wear the river-valleys into continuous courses." 

Koch also observed raised beaches from 10 to 30 
metres in height above the sea, and from all his obser- 
vations he concludes that after the glaciation of the coast 
there was a depression of the land, as proved by the old 
beaches, followed in recent times by a slow upheaval. 

Some additional information regarding Northern Lab- 
rador, says Dr. Boas, is contained in the publications of 
the reports of the German polar stations of the interna- 
tional system. " Since Koch's visit to Labrador, meteor- 
ological observations are being made at all missionary 
stations of the Labrador coast, which are of particular 
value as filling the wide gap between the system of Can- 
ada and the Danish stations in Greenland." 

We have already on page 7 given a brief account of 
Dr. Bell's observations made in 1884 on the physical 
geography of the extreme northern coast of Labrador. 

More recently the commissioner of crown lands of 
Quebec has sent surveyors who have explored the nu- 
merous rivers emptying into the St. Lawrence, Mr. C. 
E. Forgues having surveyed the rivers St. John, Mingan, 
Natashquan, and Esquimaux. During the summer of 
1887 the missionary Edmund James Peck succeeded in 
crossing Labrador from Richmond Bay to Ungava Bay, 
but as yet no account of what must have been a very 
interesting journey has appeared. Dr. Boas adds that 
" Green Island, in Hudson Bay, as shown on Packard's 
map, does not exist according to observations made by 
Gordon on his expeditions to Hudson Bay. The archives 
of the Department of Marines of France possess a number 



HOLME S EXPLORATIONS. 23I 

of manuscript maps of Hudson Strait, which, however, 
have not been published." 

Very full and detailed information regarding the re- 
gion of Fort Chimo is contained in the report of Mr, L. 
M. Turner to the U. S. Signal Bureau, which has not 
yet been published. But until some explorers cross the 
peninsula from Fort Chimo to Nain or Hopedale, and 
also ascend the Esquimaux River to its source, we shall 
be much in the dark regarding the nature of the interior 
of Labrador. An attempt to penetrate the interior from 
the head of Eskimo Bay (Lake Melville) was made in 
1887 by Mr. Randle F. Holme, whose interesting ac- 
count, illustrated by an excellent map of the entire Lab- 
rador peninsula, appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal 
Geographical Society, April, 1888. We have found his 
map of great service in compiling that of Southern Lab- 
i^ador in the present book. 

Mr. Holme tells us that on one occasion Pere Lacasse, 
the Roman Catholic missionary to the Indians, journeyed 
from Mingan to Northwest River by the Mingan and 
Kenamou rivers, and from Northwest River to Ungava 
by the Nascopee and Waquash rivers. 

Mr. Holme ascended the Grand River, which empties 
into Aivuktok Bay, as far as Lake Waminikapou, his 
point of departure being the Hudson Bay post of Rigolet. 
After exploring the mouths of Gudder's Bight River, of 
the Kenamish, the Kenamou, and the Travespines River, 
Mr. Holme ascended the Grand River 150 miles, to a 
point within 50 miles of the Grand Falls, whose height 
is unknown, but which he regards as with little doubt 
" the most stupendous falls in the world." The river is 
said by Maclean to be 500 yards broad above the falls, 



232 RECENT EXPLORATIONS. 

contracting to 50 yards at the falls themselves. We are 
not satisfied with Mr. Holme's estimate of the probable 
height of these falls ; their exploration would certainly 
reward any one who is sufficiently enterprising and has 
sufficient knowledge of geology and natural history to 
make the journey profitable. 

In regard to the canoe route from the Strait of Belle 
Isle up the Esquimaux River to Lake Melville, we may 
add that the Rev. C. C. Carpenter kindly obtained dur- 
ing the winter of 1888-89 the following notes from Mr. 
W. H. Whiteley, who has spent many summers at Bonne 
Esperance, a little island at the 3nouth of this river, and 
can speak with authority, as he; is "the most intelligent 
and reliable man on the whole Qoast," and is the magis- 
trate of this section of the Labrador coast 

"About Esquimaux River, ffom all I have been able 
to gather from the Indians, I think that there is a large 
plateau in the interior about fiv.e days' walk, for an In- 
dian, from our place, probably. about 250 miles. They 
can walk from Bonne Esperance to Rigolet in ten days, 
so they say. They tell us that St. Augustine River rises 
from the same lake as Esquimaux River, but I think 
they mean the same level plateau, -^he interior of Lab- 
rador is wholly water ; certainly four fifths of the surface 
is cut up into small ponds and lakes, which makes trav- 
elling except by water impossible unless in winter ; 
when on the ice one can make a straight course, and I 
suppose this accounts for the injtense cold for such enor- 
mous bodies of ice, for the lakes are mostly shoal and 
freeze to the bottom, making a huge ice-house of Labra- 
dor all the spring months, and, as you know, well up 
into the summer." 




Com piled, htf ^ S Ba^Kti^d. 







STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH LABRADOR. 233, 

The means of communication with Labrador from 
England is by steamer to Newfoundland, whence mail 
steamers make at least two trips each summer from St. 
John's along the Labrador coast as far north as Nain,^ 
while the steamer goes as far west as Bonne Esperance 
in the Strait of Belle Isle. Mr. Holme states that 
" new and superior steamers are being built for the 
coastal service from St. John's, and will begin to run 
this summer" (1888). Steamers also ran during the 
summer of 1890 once a fortnight from Halifax through 
Cape Breton Island along the western coast of New- 
foundland, touching at Blanc Sablon. There is also 
communication by sailing-vessels from Quebec, and oc- 
casionally a pleasure-party from Boston or some other 
port in the United States visits the Labrador coast. 



CHAPTER XII. 

A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR, WITH 
AN ACCOUNT OF ITS FISHERIES. 

The history of Labrador can be told in few words. 
The permanent residents dwell exclusively on the coast, 
and, as a rule, in the more sheltered harbors and fiords. 
The principal settlements on the shore south of the 
Strait of Belle Isle are Bonne Esperance, Forteau 
Point, Blanc Sablon, Belles Amours, and Henley Har- 
bor, a few families being scattered along the shore be- 
tween these points. On the Atlantic or eastern coast 
the most important settlement is at Battle Harbor, " a 
sheltered roadstead between Battle Island and Great 
Caribou Island, about half a mile in length and quite 
narrow." Farther north are St. Francis Harbor, Batteau 
Harbor, Occasional Harbor, Square Island Harbor, 
Domino Run. At Cartwright Bay is the southernmost 
Hudson Bay Company's post, and these are scattered 
alone: at rare intervals as far north as the fiord or inlet 
of Nachvak, the most important post being situated at 
Rigolet in Melville Bay, while at Fort Chimo in Un- 
gava Bay is another post belonging to this company. 

The population of the St. Lawrence coast of Labra- 
dor from Port Neuf to Blanc Sablon numbers about 

4,400, comprising English, and French of Canadian or 

234 



THE POPULATION OF LABRADOR. 235 

Acadian origin, who subsist chiefly by fishing and hunt- 
ing. Of the whole number 3.800 are Roman Catholics 
and 570 are Protestants. 

In the scattered settlements north of the Strait of 
Belle Isle one meets with English, Scotch, and Jersey 
sailors or their descendants, who make a very precarious 
livelihood by fishing in the summer and fur-hunting in 
the winter. The map at the end of this chapter will 
serve as a directory of the coast from Sandwich Bay 
northward. The summer or floating population of Lab- 
rador is estimated at about 30,000. mostly Newfound- 
landers. 

'* The last census taken by the government of New- 
foundland, in 1874, gives the resident population from 
Blanc Sablon to Cape Harrison as 2, 416. Of these 
1,489 belong to the Church of England ; 476 to the 
Church of Rome ; 285 are Wesleyans ; 30 are Presby- 
terians, and 126 belong to other denominations. There 
are nine places of worship : four of the Church of Eng- 
land, three of the Church of Rome, and two of the Wes- 
leyan Church.* 'According to Hatton and Harvey the 
total population of Labrador was in 1874 about 12,527, 
distributed as follows : — 

On the St. Lawrence coast, from Port Neuf to Blanc Sablon 4,41 1 

On the Atlantic coast, white population 2,416 

Eskimos 1)7°° 

Indians of the Interior 4,000 

12,527 

By a more recent estimate the number of Eskimos is 
placed at 1,500 or less. It is also probable, judging from 

* Hatton and Harvey's Newfoundland ; Boston, 1883, p. 297. 



236 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 

newspaper statements of famines in Labrador due to- 
the failure of the fisheries in late years, that the white 
population of the coast has been somewhat diminished, 
and we doubt if the total population exceeds 12,000. 

For the following brief history of Labrador we are in- 
debted to the chapter on Labrador in Hatton and Har- 
vey's excellent work on Newfoundland. 

The boundaries between Newfoundland and Canadian 
Labrador are thus defined in the " Letters-Patent Consti- 
tuting the Office of Governor and Commander-in-chief of 
the Island of Newfoundland": "We have thought fit 
to constitute order and declare that there shall be a Gov- 
ernor and Commander-in-chief (hereinafter called our 
said Governor) in and over our Island of Newfoundland, 
and the islands adjacent, and all the coast of Labrador, 
from the entrance of Hudson's Straits to a line to be 
drawn due north and south from Anse Sablon on the 
said coast to the fifty-second degree of north latitude,, 
and all the islands adjacent to that part of the said coast 
of Labrador, as also of all forts and garrisons erected and 
established, or which shall be erected and established, 
within or on the islands and coasts aforesaid (which said 
islands and coast, together with the Island of Newfound- 
land, are hereinafter referred to as our said colony), and 
that the person who shall fill the said office of Governor 
shall be from time to time appointed by commission 
under our sign-manual and signet." 

In 1 864 the boundaries of the Newfoundland portion 
of Labrador were thus defined i"'^' " The western limit of 
the government of Newfoundland is lat. ^i"" 25' N.,. 

* Appendix to the " Journal of the House of Assembly," 1864, p. 613. 



THE BOUNDARY LINE. 237 

aong. 57° 9' W., and includes Blanc Sablon and the 
Woody Islands. The northern boundary is Cape Chud- 
leigh, in lat. 60° 37' N., long. 65° W." Hatton and 
Harvey then add : " Thus a line drawn due north and 
south, from Blanc Sablon to Cape Chudleigh, constitutes 
the boundary between the two jurisdictions." If the read- 
er will draw the line on the map, he will see that it would 
include only a thin strip of the coast from Blanc Sablon 
to Davis's Inlet ; that it would not include the western 
part of Melville Bay. and north of Davis's Inlet or the 
Moravian settlement of Zoar, would pass almost to the 
westward of the mainland, including only some of the 
promontories and the outer islands from Zoar to Cape 
Chidley. This was evidently not the intention of the 
British Government. The natural boundary line between 
Newfoundland and Canadian Labrador would be, it 
seems to us, the Eskimo and Kenamou rivers, the 
western shores of Melville Bay and of Grand Lake, 
and north of this point the chain of lakes lying on the 
height of land extending along near the 65th parallel 
of longitude, the natural boundary line on Ungava 
Bay being Whale River. 

Hatton and Harvey's history then states: "This por- 
tion of Labrador was not always attached to Newfound- 
land. The first annexation took place after the Treaty 
of Paris, 1763. While the flag of France waved over 
Canada, the French carried on extensive fisheries on 
the Labrador coast, near the Straits of Belle Isle, to 
which they attach the greatest importance. After the 
conquest of Canada by Britain, a company established 
in Quebec obtained a monopoly of these fisheries 
which lasted for sixty years, but was brought to an 



238 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 

end in 1820. Until 1763 the fisheries of the whole 
southern and eastern shores of Labrador were placed 
under the government of Quebec. Increased impor- 
tance was given to the governorship of Newfoundland 
at that date by annexing to it the Atlantic coast of 
Labrador. Ten years after, in 1773, it was considered 
advisable to restore this portion of Labrador to Canada, 
owing to difficulties arising out of grants made to a 
number of persons under the rule of the French. In 
1809 ^t ^^^s again transferred to the jurisdiction of 
Newfoundland, under which it has remained ever since. 
A Court of Civil Jurisdiction, on the coast of Labra- 
dor, was instituted in 1824. A special court of civil and 
criminal jurisdiction, called ' The Court of Labrador," 
and presided over by one judge, appointed by the Gov- 
ernor in Council, secured the administration of justice. 
The customs' duties levied on goods landed on Labra- 
dor are the same as in Newfoundland. The Hudson 
Bay Company had formerly the exclusive right of trad- 
ing with the Indians of that part of Labrador which had 
rivers flowing into the inlet from which the company 
took its name, and which is designated East Maine. 
In 1870, however, the company surrendered all their 
rights of government, property, etc., in the whole of 
British North America; and these having been trans- 
ferred to the Dominion of Canada, the company being 
still at liberty to carry on their trade without hindrance^ 
or any exceptional tax, Canada has thus jurisdiction 
over all the region of Labrador which does not belong 
to Newfoundland." 

The two most notable and romantic events lighting 
up the usually prosaic course of Labrador history were 



CHATEAU. 239 

the founding by the Breton fishermen and traders of the 
town of Brest, in Bradore Bay, about 1520, and the 
battles at Chateau. It will be remembered that this 
town is estimated to have had upwards of 1,000 resi- 
dents ; its ruins and terraces being still visible. The 
other event, or rather series of events, occurred farther 
up the Strait of Belle Isle, and the scenes were less 
peaceful. Chateau, or what is now called Henley Har- 
bor, was originally colonized by the Acadian refugees, 
who either built a fort here or more strongly fortified 
Greville's Fort, originally built to resist Eskimo attacks. 
The remains of these fortifications are still extant. 
"In 1763 a British garrison was located at Chateau, 
in order to protect the fisheries ; but the place was cap-^ 
tured in 1778 by the American privateer 'Minerva,' 
and three vessels and ^70,000 worth of property were 
carried away as prizes. In 1796 the post was again 
attacked by a French fleet. A long bombardment en- 
sued between the frigates and the shore batteries, and 
it was not until their ammunition was exhausted that 
the British troops retreated into the back country, after 
having burned the village. In 1535 the French explor- 
ing fleet, under the command of Jacques Cartier, as-- 
sembled here." 

We have already spoken of the Eskimo inhabitants of 
the coast. The Indians inhabit the interior, and, as has 
been remarked, they are perhaps now the only truly 
wild, untamed red-men of North America. They are 
of the Mountaineer (or Montagnais) and Nasquapee 
(or Nascopi) tribes, and though they are roughly esti- 
mated to number 4,000, they are supposed to be slowly 
disappearing. " Game," say Hatton and Harvey, "on 



240 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 

which they depend, is becoming scarcer every year, 
owing largely to destructive fires which have swept over 
vast areas, destroying forests, berry-bearing shrubs, 
mosses and lichens, and converting whole districts into 
hopeless deserts strewed with' naked bowlders, where no 
animal life can exist. Some of the Nasquapee tribe 
are still heathen, but the Montagnais are nearly all nom- 
inally Roman Catholics. The zealous Jesuit missiona- 
ries of early times extended their labors from Canada to 
Labrador, and these have been specially successful 
among the Montagnais. Of late years they have been 
resumed, and are now systematically carried on. The 
Indians hunt over the interior, and at certain seasons 
visit the coast in order to exchange the products of 
the chase for clothing, ammunition, and other necessaries. 

Labrador, both politically and commercially, is the 
great dependency of Newfoundland, more than a fourth 
of the entire export of the fishery product of that colony 
being taken on the coast of Labrador. The average 
annual catch of Newfoundland fishermen on the Labra- 
dor coast is from 350,000 to 400,000 quintals of codfish, 
50,000 to 70,000 barrels of herring, and from 300 to 
500 tierces of salmon. The number of Newfound- 
landers who frequent the Atlantic coast of Labrador 
during the summer, from the end of June till the first or 
second week of October, is estimated at 30,000, from 
1,000 to 1,200 fishing vessels being employed each 
year. 

It has been already stated that the fishermen have 
only in recent years gone up the coast for their fares 
beyond Hopedale. When we visited the coast in 1864 
scarcely any fishermen went beyond Hamilton Inlet. 



THE LABRADOR FISHERIES. 24I 

The numerous fishing banks and shoals lying off the 
Atlantic coast on the edge of the continental shelf, and 
probably forming the 'winter feeding grounds, from 
which early in July the codfish migrate inshore, form 
an area of 7,100 square miles. It is thought by Hind 
that the great cod fishery of the future will probably 
be along Northern Labrador and over the adjacent 
banks. 

The American fishermen have abandoned the Labra- 
dor coast, preferring the Newfoundland banks, which are 
nearer to their homes. As late as 1880 about one hun- 
dred Canadian and Nova Scotia vessels were annually 
engaged in the Labrador fisheries. Formerly a good 
many Jersey fishermen frequented the coast, where there 
were several of their fishing establishments ; but of these 
only tlitree remained up to 1880, while all the English 
mercantile houses have been withdrawn. 

It is estimated that the aggregate value of the fisheries 
from all sources on the entire coast " will not fall short 
of a million pounds sterling per annum." 

The present value of these fisheries is shown by the 
following extracts from Hatton and Harvey's "New- 
foundland " : 

" Exports from Labrador for the year ending July 31, 
1880: 

NEWFOUNDLAND HOUSES. 

Dried codfish 393,436 qtls. 

Green do 144 " 

Sealskins 1,096 

Seal oil 50 tuns. 

Cod oil 76 " 

Other oil i " 

Blubber 17 " 



242 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 

Pickled salmon 592 tierces. 

Pickled herring 16,970 bbls. 

Pickled trout : 14 " 

Pickled mackerel 459 " 

Dried caplin 58 " 

EXPORTS BY LABRADOR HOUSES NOT CONNECTED WITH NEW- 
FOUNDLAND, FOR YEAR ENDING JULY I, 1880. 

Dried codfish 14,000 qtls. 

Sealskins no 

Seal oil 14 tuns. 

Cod oil 55 " 

Refuse 2 " 

Blubber 15 " 

Pickled salmon 400 tierces. 

Salmon in tins 30,000 lbs. 

Pickled herring 700 bbls. 

Pickled trout , 40 " 

Pickled mackerel 200 " 

Dried caplin 160 " 



EXPORTS BY TRADERS ON LABRADOR COAST FOR YEAR ENDING 
JULY I, 1880 (estimated QUANTITIES). 

Dried codfish 526 qtls. 

Cod oil 14 tuns. 

Pickled salmon 757 tierces. 

Pickled herring 2,612 bbls. 

Pickled mackerel 30 " 

" The foregoing statement shows that in that year the 
total export of dried codfish was 407,962 quintals — value, 
at three dollars per quintal, $1,223,886; the export of 
herring 20,282 barrels — value, at three and a half dollars 
per barrel, $70,987 ; the export of salmon 1,749 tierces, 
— value $34,980. 



\ \ 



THE LABRADOR FISHERIES. 243 

^' For the year ending 31st July, 1881, the exports of 
the three great staples were as follows : — 

Dried codfish 419,997 qtls. 

Pickled herring 33,33° bbls. 

Pickled salmon 957 tierces. 

" It must be remembered that the foregoing figures 
represent only the exports of the fishery products, and do 
not show the quantities consumed by the fishermen while 
employed, or afterwards during the winter at their own 
homes, which must be very considerable. Besides, 
about a fourth of the whole catch is sent to Newfound- 
land for shipment, and the Canadian and American 
fishermen who frequent these shores carry away with 
them the products of their labors, which are estimated 
to be about a ninth of the entire quantities taken." 

To show how precarious and uncertain the Labrador 
fisheries are still, I quote from the following letter from 
J. W. Collins, Asst. U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 
Fisheries, under date of Oct. 27, 1887, in answer to my 
letter of inquiry: "During last July and August I 
made a cruise in the Fish Commission schooner Grampus 
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, around the south and east 
coasts of Newfoundland, through the Strait of Belle Isle, 
and thence to Mingan. I learned that the cod fishery 
on the east coast of Newfoundland (particularly that 
portion known as the ' French Shore,' from Cape St. 
Joh.n to Cape Bauld) and at the Labrador has been bad 
for the past two or three years. But it was worse this 
year than ever. As late as July 26th I met Capt. George 
Manuel, of the mail steamer Plover, at Twillingate. He 
was then direct from the Labrador coast, and reported 



244 A GLANCE AT THE CIVIL HISTORY OF LABRADOR. 

the cod fishery in a very bad condition, the boats having- 
taken only from five to thirty quintals each at the dif- 
ferent harbors. Ice was packed in on the coast, and 
none of the vessels had got beyond Battle Harbor. 

" August I St the average catch of cod on the north- 
east coast of Newfoundland— Cape Freels to Cape Bauld 
— did not exceed a single quintal of marketable fish, 
and in many places was less than half this amount. 

" On August 4th I talked with the crew of the 
schooner Edward Rich, of Catalina, Newfoundland. She 
had been fishing in the Strait of Belle Isle, and was then 
at Cape Norman. She had a crew of ten men and had 
taken only one hundred and twenty quintals of cod up to 
that date. 

" Newspaper accounts, which I saw at a later date, 
stated the Labrador fishery had been a failure this year- 

"No American vessels have engaged in the Labrador 
fisheries since 1880, so far as we are informed ; and then 
only a single vessel went- there. Unless there is a 
marked improvement in the cod fishery of that region, I 
believe it will not be long before vessels will stop going 
there. Already the Nova Scotian and Newfoundland 
fishermen are changing their summer trips from the 
Labrador to the outer banks." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE 

SOUTHWARD. 

It is not my purpose to give a detailed account of the 
Labrador Eskimos, but simply to put together what I 
have found in relation to them in works referring to 
Labrador, and to add a few notes made during the two 
summers spent on that coast in i860 and 1864. Al- 
though I was aware that the Eskimos formerly lived as 
far south as the southern entrance to the Strait of Belle 
Isle, where I saw two individuals in i860, one said to be 
a full-blooded Eskimo woman, I regarded them as strag- 
glers from the north. It now seems more probable, from 
the Rev. Mr. Carpenter's statement, in a subsequent page, 
and from the fact, to be hereafter stated, that several 
hundred Eskimos lived at Chateau Bay, opposite Belle 
Isle, in I 765, while others were known to have extended 
as far east as the Mingan Islands, that this race had a 
more or less permanent foothold on the northern shores 
of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. If this was so, it seems 
not improbable that this roving race may have made, 
in very early times, expeditions farther south to Nova 
Scotia and New England. Here also comes to mind 
the theory of Dr. C. C. i\bbot, that the Eskimos for- 
merly inhabited the coast of New Jersey during the 
river-terrace epoch. 

245 



246 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

Although at first disposed to reject such an assump- 
tion, the examination we have made leads us to look 
with more favor upon Dr. Abbot's theory, and to think 
it not improbable that long after the close of the glacial 
period, i.e., after the ice had disappeared and during the 
early part of the terrace epoch, when the reindeer and 
walrus lived as far south as New Jersey, the Eskimos, 
now considered so primitive a race, possibly the remnants 
of the Palaeolithic people of Europe, formerly extended 
as far as a region defined by the edge of the great mo- 
raine ; and as the climate assumed its present features, 
moved northward. They were also possibly pushed 
northward by the Indians, who may have exterminated 
them from the coast south of the mouth of the St. Law- 
rence, the race becoming acclimated to the arctic regions. 
All these hypotheses came up afresh in our mind a few 
summers ago when we began to collect these notes. Their 
substantiality became more pronounced after reading the 
confirmatory remarks made by Professor E. B. Tylor at 
the Montreal meeting of the British Association. We 
are not now, however, prepared to adopt the view that 
the Norsemen did not go as far south as Narragansett 
Bay, and that the natives they saw were not red Indians, 
their word " skrellings" being indiscriminately applied to 
any of the native tribes they saw. 

We do find, however, unexpected confirmation of 
Professor Tylor's supposition that " Eskimos eight hun- 
dred years ago, before they had ever found their way to 
Greenland, were hunting seals on the coast of Newfound- 
land, and caribou in the forest," for these events did 
actually happen in Newfoundland, or at least there are 
traces of Eskimo residence in large numbers at Chateau 



.-M 



MIGRATIONS OF THE ESKIMO. 247 

Bay in 1 765, of their repeated crossing over to Newfound- 
land, and of their learning a few French words from the 
French settlers. 

At all events the facts we here present should induce 
our New England and Canadian archaeologists to make 
the most careful examination of the shell-heaps about 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence and on the shores of 
northern and southern Nova Scotia, as well as of 
Maine and northern Massachusetts, for traces of early 
Eskimo occupation. 

Certain facts seem to confirm the early belief of the 
Greenland Danes and Moravians that the Labrador Es- 
kimos were an older people than those who migrated into 
Greenland. In the extracts from the appendix to 
Cranch's History of Greenland given farther on, we shall 
see that the Eskimos of these two regions differed in their 
dress and kayaks, differences we have personally noticed. 

Whether the Labrador Eskimos belong to an older 
stock than those living directly north of Hudson's Bay 
we cannot say. Crantz, however, remarks : " As early 
then as the year 1800 our missionaries learned from the 
reports of Northlanders who visited their settlements 
that the main seat of the nation was on the coast and 
islands of the north, beyond Cape Chudleighy Crantz, 
in a note (xvi), also claims : " There can be no hesita- 
tion in affirming that Greenland was peopled from Lab- 
rador, not Labrador from Greenland." 

The theory that the Eskimos entered America by way 
of Behring Strait, now generally received,* was thus stated 
by Crantz in 1767 : "Our Greenlanders, it should seem, 
having settled in Tartary after the grand dispersion of 

* Mr. Dall and others do not, however, accept this view. 



248 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

the nations, were gradually impelled northward by the 
tide of emigration, till they reached the extreme corner 
of Kamtschatka, and finding themselves disturbed even 
in these remote seats, they crossed the strait to the 
neighboring continent of America. . . . Our savages 
then retired before their pursuers across the narrow 
strait, either by a direct navigation or by a more gradual 
passage from island to island, to America, where they 
could spread themselves without opposition through the 
unoccupied wastes round the southeast part of Hudson's 
Bay, or through Canada up to the northern ocean. And 
here they were first met with in the eleventh century by 
the discoverers of Wineland. But when they were 
compelled to evacuate these possessions likewise, by the 
numerous tribes of Indians superior to themselves in 
strength and valor, who thronged to the north out of 
Florida, they receded nearer to the pole, as far as the 60th 
degree. Here Ellis in his voyage to Hudson's Bay found 
the Esquimaux,* resembling the Greenlanders in every 
particular of dress, figure, boats, weapons, houses, man- 
ners, and customs. . . . The clerk of the Califor- 
nia^ says that these Esquimaux are grievously harassed 
by the Indians inhabiting the south and west shores of 
Hudson's Bay, who are in all respects a distinct race. 
An unsuccessful hunting or fishing expedition is a sufifi- 
cient pretext for their oppressors to fall upon them and 
take them prisoners or murder them. These acts of 
violence have induced the fugitives to retreat so far to 

* Charlevois derives this name from the Indian word Eskimantsik, which in 
the language of the Abenaquis signifies to eat raw; and it is certain that they 
eat raw fish. (They also eat seals and birds raw.) 

f Account of a voyage for the discovery of a northwest passage, vol. ii. 
P- 43- 



HUDSON BAY ESKIMOS. 249 

the northward ; and part of them in all probability passed 
over to Greenland in the fourteenth century, either 
crossing Davis's Strait in their boats from Cape Walsing- 
ham in lat. 66° to the South Bay, a distance of scarcely 
forty leagues, or otherwise proceeding by land round the 
extremity of Baffin's Bay, where, if we may trust the re- 
ports of the Greenlanders, stone crosses, like guide-posts, 
are still to be seen at intervals along the coast." 

That the Eskimos were more abundant on the eastern 
shores of Hudson's Bay may be proved by the following 
extracts from Coats's Notes on the Geography of Hud- 
son's Bay, reprinted by the Hakluyt Society.^" It ap- 
pears from his notes that the Eskimos inhabited Labrador 
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence around to James's Bay, 
i.e., as far south in Hudson's Bay as Belcher's Island 
(lat. 56° 6') and the Sleepers. Their southern range 
w^as probably Hazard Gulf, in lat. 56° 22 . The coast of 
Hudson's Bay is wild and barren, with floating ice. 
Speaking of the barren, treeless coast from Cape Diggs 
to Hazard Gulf, Coats says : " Doubtless the native Us- 
quemows know the time and seasons of those haunts, 
and nick it, for we found vestiges of them at all the 
places we stopt att." From the foregoing extract it is 
obvious that Captain Coats obtained his knowledge of the 
Labrador Indians and the Eskimos from his personal ob- 
servations and inquiries while in Hudson's Bay ; he per- 
sonally only by hearsay received information that the 
Eskimos, by whalers called " Huskies," lived as far south 
as St. Lawrence Bay ; but his statement will be seen to 

* Notes on the Geography of Hudson's Bay, being the remarks of Capt. W. 
Coats in many voyages to that locality between the years 1727 and 1751. Ed- 
ited by John Barrow. London, Hakluyt Society, 1852. 8vo. 



250 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

be confirmed by Crantz. The northern Indians men- 
tioned by Coats are undoubtedly the Naskopies. 

The following extracts from the appendix to Crantz's 
History of Greenland, English translation, fully prove 
that several hundred Eskimos spent the summer at Cha- 
teau Bay opposite the northeastern extremity of New- 
foundland, and also crossed over to the latter island, and 
must have been, for several years at least, residents on 
the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle. The first visit of 
the Moravians to the Labrador coast was in 1752; 
Christian Erhard, a Dutchman, but a member of the 
Moravian Society, landed in July in Nisbet's Haven, 
with a boat's crew of five men, at a point north of this 
harbor, where all were murdered by the Eskimos, the ves- 
sel returning to England. The next attempt to approach 
the Eskimos was made in 1764, by Jens Haven, who had 
labored for several years as a missionary in Greenland, 
and had recently returned with Crantz to Germany., 
With letters of introduction to Hugh Palliser, Esq., the 
governor of Newfoundland, in May of the same year he 
arrived at St. Johns ; " but he had to meet with many 
vexatious delays before he reached his destination, every 
ship with which he engaged refusing to land for fear of 
the Esquimaux. He was at length set on shore in Cha- 
teau Bay, on the southern coast of Labrador ; here, how- 
ever, he found no signs of population except several 
scattered tumuli, with the arrows and implements of the 
dead deposited near them. Embarking again he finally 
landed on the island of Quirpont or Quiveron, off the 
northeast extremity of Newfoundland, in the Strait of 
Belle Isle, where he had the first interview with the na- 
tives." " The 4th September," he writes in his journal, 



THE ESKIMO IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 25 1 

" was the happy day when I saw an Esquimau arrive 
in the harbor. I ran to meet him and addressed him in 
Greenlandic. He was astonished to hear his own lan- 
guage from the mouth of an European, and answered 
me in broken French." The next day eighteen returned 
his visit. On the third day the Eskimos left the harbor 
altogether, and after a short stay at Quirpont Haven re- 
turned to Newfoundland. 

The following year Haven, with three other mission- 
aries, landed, July 17, 1765, in Chateau Bay, lat. 52°, on 
the south shore of Labrador, opposite Belle Isle. " Here 
the party separated ; Haven and Schlotzer engaging 
with another vessel, to explore the coast northwards ; 
they did not, however, accomplish anything material in 
this expedition, nor did they meet with a single Esqui- 
mau the whole time. Drachart and John Hill remained 
in Chateau Bay, and were fortunate enough to have the 
company of several hundred Esquimaux for upwards of 
a month, during which period they had daily opportu- 
nities of intercourse. As soon as Sir Thomas Adams had 
received intelligence that they had pitched their tents at 
a place twenty miles distant, he sailed thither to invite 
them, in the name of the governor, to Pitt's Harbor. On 
the approach of the ship the savages in the kajaks hailed 
them with shouts of 'Tout camarade, oui Hu !' and the 
crew returned the same salutation. Mr. Drachart did 
not choose to join in the cry, but told Sir Thomas that 
he could converse with the natives in their own language. 
When the tumult had subsided he took one of them by 
the hand and said in Greenlandic, * We are friends.' 
The savage replied, * We are also thy friends.' " 

Crantz then describes, from the notes of Haven and 



252 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

Drachart, the peninsula of Labrador and some of the 
animals as well as the habits of the Eskimos. These 
people remained at Chateau Bay through the summer 
until at least after the middle of September, as on Sept. 
1 2th and 13th the shallop ran ashore, and the Eskimos 
invited them to lodge in their tents, carrying the mission- 
aries ashore on their backs. 

The following extract shows that the Eskimos must, 
before the year 1765, have been in the habit of crossing 
the Strait of Belle Isle and landing on Newfoundland : 

" The governor wished to prevent them from crossing 
over to Newfoundland, where, according to their own 
account, they procured a certain kind of wood not to be 
found in their country, of which they made their darts. 
But since they interpreted this prohibition as a breach 
of peace, it was rescinded on their promise to commit 
no depredation on the fishing-vessels they might meet 
with on the way ; to which engagement they scrupu- 
lously adhered." 

The account then goes on to say that during the inter- 
val which occurred between the visit of Haven and Dra- 
chart in 1765 and the foundation of the first missionary 
settlement at Nain in 1771, "the old quarrels between 
the natives and the English traders were resumed ; and 
as no one was present who could act as interpreter and. 
explain the mutual grounds of difference, the affair ter- 
minated in bloodshed. Nearly twenty of the natives 
were killed in the fray, among whom was Karpik's 
father ; he himself, with another boy and seven females, 
were taken prisoners and carried to Newfoundland. One 
of these women, of the name of Mikak, and her son, 
were brought to England, where they recognized an ac- 



THE MORAVIAN STATIONS. 253 

quaintance in Mr. Haven, who had formerly slept a 
night in their tent. Karpik was detained by Governor 
Palliser, with the intention of committing him to the 
care of Mr. Haven, to be trained up for usefulness in a 
future mission to his countrymen. He did not arrive in 
England till 1 769, at which time he was about fifteen 
years old." He died in England of small-pox. 

We glean a few more items from Crantz regarding the 
distribution, numbers, and habits of the Labrador Eski- 
mos. The Moravians, after founding Nain (lat. 56° 25'), 
determined to found two other stations, one to the north 
and the other to the south. Okkak (150 miles north of 
Nain in lat. 57° 33') was thus founded on land purchased 
from the Eskimos in 1775, Haven with his family estab- 
lishing himself there the following year. The reason for 
founding these stations was due to the fact that it " was 
found insufficient to serve as a gathering place for the 
Eskimos dispersed along a line of coast not less than six 
hundred miles in extent, especially as it afforded but 
scanty resources to the natives during the winter season, 
when they had fewer inducements to rove from place to 
place." 

In the summer of 1782 the Moravians began a third 
settlement to the south, " on the spot which they had 
formerly marked out and purchased from the Esquimaux. 
This station received the name of Hopedale." As ob- 
stacles to the missionary work were the following : " The 
spirit of traffic had become extremely prevalent amongst 
the southern Esquimaux ; the hope of exaggerated ad- 
vantages which they might derive from a voyage to the 
European factories, wholly abstracted their thoughts from 
religious inquiries ; and one boat-load followed another 



254 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

throughout the summer. A Frenchman from Canada, 
named Makko, who had newly settled in the south, and 
who sustained the double character of trader and Catholic 
priest, was particularly successful in enticing the Esqui- 
maux by the most tempting offers. Besides the evil 
consequences resulting from these expeditions in a spir- 
itual point of view, so large a proportion of their wares 
was thus conveyed to the south that the annual vessel 
which brought out provisions and other necessaries for 
the brethren, and articles of barter for the natives, could 
make up but a small cargo in return, though the brethren, 
unwilling as they were to supply this ferocious race with 
instruments which might facilitate the execution of their 
revengeful projects, furnished them with the firearms 
which they could otherwise, and on any terms, have pro- 
cured from the south." 

Crantz then mentions a feature of Eskimo life which, 
however repugnant to the feelings of the Moravians, is of 
interest to the ethnologist, and has not, so far as we are 
aware, been observed among the Eskimos of late years. 
This was the erection of a temporary winter ^stufa or 
public game-house. " A kache, or pleasure-house, which, 
to the grief of the missionaries, was erected in 1777 
by the savages near Nain, and resorted to by visitors 
from Okkak, has been described by the brethren. It 
was built entirely of snow, sixteen feet high and seventy 
feet square. The entrance was by a round porch, which 
communicated with the main body of the house by a 
long avenue terminated at the farther end by a heart- 
shaped aperture, about eighteen inches broad and two 
feet in height. For greater solidity the wall near the 
entrance was congealed into ice by water poured upon it. 



ESKIMO GAME. 255 

Near the entry was a pillar of ice supporting the lamp, 
and additional light was let in through a transparent 
plate of ice in the side of the building. A string hung 
from the middle of the roof, by which a small bone was 
suspended, with four holes driven through it. Round 
this all the women were collected, behind whom stood 
the men and boys, each having a long stick shod with 
iron. The string was now set a-swinging, and the men, 
all together, thrust their sticks over the heads of their 
wives at the bone, till one of them succeeded in striking 
a hole. A loud acclamation ensued ; the men sat down 
on a snow seat, and the victor, after going two or three 
times round the house singing, was kissed by all the men 
and boys ; he then suddenly made his exit through the 
avenue, and, on his return, the game was renewed." 

The narrative then goes on to state that "one of the 
objects of the establishment at Hopedale had been to 
promote an intercourse with the red Indians who lived 
in the interior, and sometimes approached in small par- 
ties to the coast. A mutual reserve subsisted between 
them and the Esquimaux, and the latter fled in the great- 
est trepidation when they discovered any traces of them 
in their neighborhood. In 1790, however, much of this 
coldness was removed, when several families of these In- 
dians came to Kippokak, an European factory about 
twenty miles distant from Hopedale. In April, 1799, 
the missionaries conversed with two of them, a father 
and son, who came to Hopedale to buy tobacco. It 
appeared that they were attached to the service of some 
Canadians in the southern settlements, as well as many 
others of their tribe, and had been baptized by the French 
priests. They evidently regarded the Esquimaux with 



256 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

alarm, though they endeavored to conceal their suspi- 
cions, excusing themselves from lodging in their tent on 
account of their uncleanly habits. At parting they as- 
sured the brethren that they would receive frequent vis- 
its from their countrymen, but this has not as yet been 
the case." 

From Cartwright's "Journal of a Residence in Labra- 
dor" we glean the following statements, which certainly 
confirm those of the Moravians : In 1765 a blockhouse 
was erected in a small fort at Chateau Bay to protect the 
English merchants from the Eskimos. (Cartwright also 
gives the best account we have seen of the Bethuks of 
Newfoundland.) The southern tribe of Eskimos were 
at Chateau Bay in 1770, Cartwright observing that some 
Moravians were there at the same time. He also states 
that there was an Eskimo settlement "some distance to 
the northward" of Cape Charles, and that a family of 
nine Eskimos came to spend the winter, living near Cart- 
wright's house, and more Eskimos came to join them in 
July, 1 771, there being thirty-two in all; they traded 
whalebone with the Eskimos to the northward.* Cart- 
wright saw deserted Eskimo winter houses near Denbigh 
Island. 

In 1771 he saw an Eskimo pursuing a "penguin" in 
his kayak near Fogo Island, off the coast of Newfound- 
land ! 

* That the French in 1753 traded with the Eskimos for whalebone and oil is 
shown by the following extract from Jeffrey's Northwest Passage, p. 147: 
" The Eskemaux go up to Latitude 58, or further North; there leave their great 
Boats, pass a small Neck of Land, taking their Canoes with them, and then go 
into another Water which communicates with Hudson's Streights, carry their 
Return of Trade into Eskemaux Bay, where they live in Winter; and the French 
rnade considerable Returns to Old France, by the whalebone and oil procured 
from these People." 



THE ESKIMO IN LABRADOR. 257 

August 30, 1772, "500 or thereabouts" Eskimos ar- 
rived at Charles's Harbor from Chateau Bay to the south- 
ward, to meet their relations from London, whom Cart- 
wright had the year previous taken with him to London, 
some of them having died in England of the small-pox. 
In April and May, 1776, Eskimos were observed living 
near Huntington Island. Many Eskimos died in Ivuk- 
toke Inlet, probably from the small-pox, brought over 
from England. Cartwright also reports seeing Eskimos 
at Huntington Island in 1783, also at Chateau Bay. where 
they were observed in 1786. 

The foregoing extracts abundantly prove that the Es- 
kimos repeatedly crossed to Newfoundland, residing, dur- 
ing the summer at least, on the outer islands opposite 
Belle Isle. No reference is made to the former presence 
of the Eskimos in Newfoundland, It is not improbable 
that there was at least a slight intercourse between the 
Bethuks, the aborigines of Newfoundland, said to be a 
branch of the Algonkins, and found to be in possession 
of the island by Cabot in 1497. A stone vessel dug up 
with other Bethuk remains is described as " an oblong 
vessel of soft magnesian stone, hollowed to the depth of 
two inches, the lower edges forming a square of three 
and a half inches in the sides. In one corner is a hollow 
groove, which apparently served as a spout." * If this is, 
as has been suggested to us by Professor Tylor, attribut- 
able to the influence of Eskimo art, the style may have 
been suggested by the possible intercourse of these ab- 
origines with the wandering Eskimos. 

* Newfoundland, its history, its present condition, and its prospects in the 
future. By Joseph Hatton and the Rev. M. Harvey, Boston, 1883, p. 169. See 
also Mr. Lloyd's paper, Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Brit- 
ain and IreKnd. 



258 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

In connection with the subject of the relations between 
the Indians of Newfoundland and the Labrador Eskimos, 
may be cited the following statement of that industrious 
historian, the late Jesuit, Father Vetromile. In an ar- 
ticle entitled " Acadia and its Aborigines,""^ he says : 
"The Etchimins, Micmacs, and Abenakis are very often 
considered as one nation, not only on account of the 
similarity of their language, customs, suavity of manners, 
and attachment to the French, but also for their league 
in defending themselves against the English. Although 
the Micmacs are generally somewhat smaller in size than 
the other Indians of Acadia and New France, yet they 
are equally i)rave. They have made a long war against 
the Esquimaux (eaters of raw flesh), whom they have 
followed and attacked in their caverns and rocks of Lab- 
rador.f Newfoundland must have several times been 



* Collections of the Maine Hist. Soc, vii., pp. 339-349. 1876. Communi- 
cated Jan. 16, 1S62. 

f Father Vetromile evidently takes this statement from Charlevoix, who in 
his Histoire generale de la Nouvelle France, i., p. 124, remarks after speaking of 
the Micmacs of Acadia: ' 'lis ont fait lontems una cruelle guerre aux Esquimaux, 
et pour les aller attaquer jusques dans leurs Cavernes, et sur leurs Rochers, 
lis ne craignoient point de faire trente a quarante lieues en Mer, dans leurs Ca- 
nots d'ecorce." That Newfoundland was the field of hard wars between the 
Micmacs and Eskimos, seems to be a pure assumption on the part of Vetromile. 
Charlevoix, however, on p. 421, vol. i., of his Histoire, remarks: " On n'a ja- 
mais vu sur ses Cotes, que des Eskimaux, qui y passent de la grande Terre de 
Labrador, pour chaffer, et pour faire la Traitte avec les Europeens ; mais ces 
Sauvages ont souvent parte d'autres Peuples, avec qui ils sont en commerce." 

In vol. iii. p. 178, again discoursing of the Eskimos of Newfoundland, Charle- 
voix remarks : " Ce qui est certain, c'est qu'on n'y a jamais vu que des Eski- 
maux, qui n'en sont pas originaires. Leur veritable Patrie est la Terre de La- 
borador, ou Labrador; c'est la du moins, qu'ils passent la plus grande partie de 
I'annee; car ce seroit, ce semble, profaner le doux nom de Patrie, que de le 
donner a des Barbaras errons, qui ne s'affectionnent a aucun Pays, & qui pou- 
vant a peine peupler deux ou trois Villages, embrassent un Terrein immense. 
En effet, outre les Cotes de Terre-Neuve, que les Eskimaux parcourent pen- 



,ESKIMO TRADITIONS. 259 

the field of hard wars between the.Micmacs and Esqui- 
maux ; the latter were always chased by the former" 

(P- 339)- 

Nearly all the extracts we have made tend to show 

that the Eskimos were generally driven northward by the 
Indians and confined by them to their natural habitat, 
the treeless regions of arctic America, whither the In- 
dians themselves did not care to penetrate. 

In 1811 two Moravian missionaries* explored the 
northern coast of Labrador from Okkak to Ungava Bay, 
making an excellent map of this part of the coast. The 
expedition arose from their desire to establish missions 
where the Eskimos were abundant, as farther down the 
coast they were regarded as " mere stragglers." 

An Eskimo tradition of interest is mentioned in this 
book, as follows : "July 24th. Amitok lies N. W. from 
Kummaktorvik, is of an oblong shape, and stretches out 
pretty far towards the sea. The hills- are of moderate 
height, the land is in many places flat, but in general 
destitute of grass. On the other side are some ruins of 
Greenland [Eskimo] houses. 

"The Esquimaux have a tradition that the Green- 
dam I'Ete, dans tout ce vaste Continent, qui est entre le Fleuve Saint-Laurent, 
le Canada, & la Mer du Nord, on n'a encore vu que des Eskimaux. On en a 
meme trouve assez loin en remontant le Fleuve Bourbon, qui se decharge dans 
la Baye d'Hudson, venant de I'Occident." 

Nuttall, in his Manual of Ornithology, Water Birds (Boston, 1834), speaking 
of the great auk, says : " Many are said to breed on the desert coasts of New- 
foundland, where they have been seen by navigators, though not recently. 
According to Pennant, the Esquimaux, who frequented this island, made cloth- 
ing of the skins of these birds." 

* Journal of a voyage from Okkak, on the coast of Labrador, to Ungava Bay, 
westward of Cape Chudleigh, undertaken to explore the coast and visit the Es- 
quimaux in that unknown region. By Benj. Kohlmeister and George Knoch, 
missionaries of the Church of the Unitas Fratrum. London, 1814, 8vo, pp. 83, 



360 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

landers [i.e., Greenland Eskimos] came originally from 
Canada, and settled' on the outermost islands of this 
coast, but never penetrated into the country before they 
were driven eastward to Greenland. This report gains 
some credit from the state in which the above-mentioned 
ruins are found. They consist in remains of walls and a 
Sfrave, with a low stone enclosure round the tomb, cov- 
ered with a slab of the same material. They have been 
discovered on islands near Nain, and though sparingly, 
all along the whole eastern coast, but we saw none in 
Ungava Bay." 

The following extracts from Robinson's " Notes on the 
Coast of Labrador,"* throw some further light on the 
early occupation of southern Labrador and eastern Can- 
ada by the Eskimos : 

"The Esquimau tradition concerning the Norse- 
men is clear enough : that they were a gigantic race, of 
great strength — were very fierce, and delighted to kill 
people — that they themselves could not be killed by 
either dart or arrow, which rebounded from their breasts 
as from a rock. The Esquimaux suppose these giants 
still to exist, only very far north." (Page 28). 

"When the French first frequented the coast, it was in 
possession of the Esquimaux up as far as the west end of 
Anticosti. It appears that they had not been long in 
possession before the arrival of the Europeans, and that 
they had got it by conquest. During the time they held 
the coast, it would seem, the Esquimau country was 
the champ d'honneur of all the tribes of Indians from 
New England and the Lakes to Hudson's Bay. Mic- 



* Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc, Quebec, iv. i. Feb., 1843. 



ESKIMOS AND MOUNTAINEERS. 261 

macs and Abinaquis, from Nova Scotia and Maine ; 
Iroquois, from lakes Cliamplain and Ontario ; Algon- 
quins and Nascopies, nortli of the St. Lawrence — all sent 
their war parties against the Esquimaux : as to their im- 
mediate neighbors, the Mountaineers, a continual war 
raged between them. 

" Notwithstanding all these enemies, the Esquimaux 
maintained their conquests with a strong hand, and, it is 
probable, would have progressed farther south if the 
Europeans had not arrived. No account of their num- 
bers has come down to us ; yet from various items it 
would appear to be seventy thousand. When De Monts 
first settled Port Royal in Nova Scotia in 1605, he was 
surprised with the appearance of an Indian army near 
his settlement, of four hundred men, who had just re- 
turned from an expedition against the Esquimaux. It 
would seem by this that the parties who ventured into 
the Esquimau country were numerous" (pp. 42, 43). 

" I have said that they maintained their conquests 
along the Gulf shore until about the year 1600, when 
the Mountaineers, having received firearms from the 
French, and learned the use of them, this soon turned 
the scale, as it does everywhere else, and the Esquimaux 
were forced to give ground, retiring downwards to the 
Straits, and concentrating themselves on Esquimaux Is- 
land, about one mile from the house of the late Mr. N. 
Lloyd, of St. Paul's. There they fortified themselves in 
a camp, with walls composed of stone and turf, with a 
ditch outside, in circuit more than half a mile, which re- 
mains almost entire to this day. In this fort they main- 
tained themselves till about the year 1640, when they 
were assaulted bv the Mountaineers aided by the French, 



262 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

and either totally extirpated or expelled ; the few that 
escaped returning to the north, outside of the Strait of 
Belle Isle. In this assault, it is said, more than 1,000 
were slain, and by the quantity of human bones scattered 
over the island I should think the number was not over- 
rated. After their expulsion from the Gulf shores they 
occasionally made predatory excursions against the 
French — coming into the Straits, early in the spring, in 
skin-boats — burning fishing-rooms, boats, etc., killing the 
guardians or making them fly. Twice they assaulted 
Bradore during the times of the Courtemanches, in one 
of ^hich they lost four hundred men : indeed, they con- 
tinued this warfare until three years before the conquest ; 
when, after destroying several fishing-stands along the 
Straits, they were repulsed by some sealing crews at 
Pennoyer River (pp. 45, 46). 

The following extract from Arthur Dobbs's " An Ac- 
count of the Countries adjoining to Hudson's Bay" 
(London, 1744) throws light on the struggle for exist- 
ence on the East Main, nearly two centuries ago, be- 
tween the red Indians and the Eskimos : 

" The East Main from Slade River to Hudson's 
Streight is least known, there being no factories fixed 
there for Trade, altho' the best Sable and black Fox 
skins are got there. Here the Nodway or Eskimaux 
Indians live, who are in a manner hunted and destroyed 
by the more southerly Indians, being perpetually at war 
with each other." 

The stone structures, particularly the grave or dolmen- 
like burial-places referred to by the Moravians, are of 
course matters of very great interest. In connection 
with that statement we would draw attention to the fol- 



ESKIMO GRAVES. 263 

lowing extract from " The three voyages of Martin 
Frobisher," second voyage, 1577, Hal-iluyt Society, Lon- 
don, 1867, p. 136 : 

" In one of the small islands here [near Lecester's 
Hand in Beares sound] we founde a tombe, wherein the 
bones of a dead man lay together, and our savage being 
with us and demanded (by signes) whether his country- 
man had not slain this man and eat his flesh so from the 
bones, he made signes to the contrarie, and that he was 
slain with wolves and wild beastes." 

Although it is generally stated that the Eskimos seldom 
if ever bury their dead, the foregoing statement would 
show that in early times at least they took pains to place 
the corpse in stone tombs. I found at Hopedale, in 1864, 
two skeletons, evidently Eskimo, interred in the follow- 
ing manner : while walking over a high bare hill north- 
east of the station I discovered a pole projecting from 
what seemed a fissure in the rock ; it proved to be the 
sign of an Eskimo grave ; the pole projected from the 
chasm, which was about fifteen inches wnde and twenty 
or twenty-four inches in depth ; the opening was covered 
by a few large stones laid across the fissure. At the 
bottom lay the remains of two skeletons entirely exposed 
to the elements, with no soil over them. The skulls 
were tolerably well preserved, and so were the long 
bones, but the vertebrae, ribs, etc., had .mostly decayed. 
Judging by the way in which such objects are preserved 
in the open air on this coast, the burial must have been 
made at least over half a century ago, but £nore probably 
from one to three centuries since. 

Mr. Holme found on Eskimo Island, twelve miles 
west of Rigolet, about seventy graves. " These graves 



264 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

were made in the ordinary Eskimo custom, not bein^ 
underground, although the soil was by no means defi- 
cient, but consisting of rough unhewn blocks of stone 
heaped together in an oblong form, the inside measure- 
ments being 2 feet by il feet. Many of them had been 
disturbed by bears or wolves, but in most of them a skull 
and bones were lying.* 

We now glean the following extracts from Hind's 
excellent Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador 
Peninsula, which show that the Eskimos spread south- 
westward along the coast of Labrador as far as the Min- 
gan Islands. 

Speaking of the Montagnais or coast Indians of Lab- 
rador, he writes : " Of their wars with the Mohawks to 
the west, and the Esquimaux to the east, between two 
and three hundred years ago, there not only remain 
traditions, but the names of many places in the Labra- 
dor peninsula are derived from bloody battles with their 
bold and cruel enemies, or the stolid and progressive 
Esquimaux" (ii. p. 11). 

" The summit of the Great Boule, seven hundred feet 
above the sea, and the brow of the bold peninsula on the 
west side of the harbor [Seven Island Bay] were two 
noted outlooks in the good old Montagnais times. They 
are not unfrequently visited now, when the Indians of the 
coast wish to show their country to the Nasquapees from 
the interior, and to tell them of their ancient wars with 
the Esquimaux. . . . They were able to hold their own 
against the Esquimaux in consequence of the almost ex- 
clusively maritime habits of the people, who rarely as- 

* Proc. Roy. Geographical Soc, April, 1888, p. 193. 



ESKIMO IN THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE. 265 

cended the rivers farther than the first falls or rapids ; 
and they fearlessly pursued their way through the interior 
of the country as far as the Strait of Belle Isle and 
Hamilton Inlet, but exercising the utmost caution as 
they approached the sea to hunt for seals" (p. 30). 

Of the Mingan Islands Esquimaux Island was so 
named '* because the Esquimaux were wont to assemble 
there every spring in search of seals," etc., etc. (p. 49). 

" The ruins of Brest must not be confounded with 
those of the old Esquimau fort some distance farther up 
the straits, and which are found on Esquimaux Island in 
St. Paul's Bay. These ruins, consisting of walls com- 
posed of stone and turf, remain almost entire to this 
day ; * and on the same island are large numbers of 
human bones, the relics of a great battle between the 
Montagnaisand French on one side and the Esquimaux 
on the other, which were found about 1840" (p. i3o).f 

"At Fox Harbor there is a small settlement of Esqui- 
maux, who are now orderly and industrious Christian 
people, fruits of the faithful labors of the missionary at 
Battle Harbor, who has resided eight years on the coast" 
(p. 198). 

" Seals have been the chief cause of the wars between 
the Montagnais and Esquimaux of the Labrador penin- 
sula, and most of the conflicts between these people 
have taken place at the estuaries of rivers known to be 
favorite haunts of the seal " (p. 204). 

* Robertson of Sparr point. 

f In an interesting map in Cliarlevoix's Histoire, vol. i., facing p. 418, the 
site of Brest is indicated by " Fort Ponchartrain," while the "old Esquimaux 
fort" of Hind is on this map called " Vieux Fort," and is situated on the west 
side of the mouth of Eskimo River, at the mouth of which is the " I. des Esqui- 
maux" of Charlevoix. 



266 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

Regarding the Eskimos living near Caribou Island, at 
the mouth of Esquimaux River, Strait of Belle Isle, in 
i860 and several years after that date, the following in- 
formation has been kindly given me by the Rev. C. C. 
Carpenter, for some years (1858 to 1865) a missionary 
to this part of the Labrador coast : " Concerning the 
Esquimaux (' Huskemaw,' old father Chalker at Salmon 
Bay used to call them), in my time there was only one 
family living in the immediate vicinity of the mission, 
and that only a fragment — the Dukes family. They 
once lived at the extremity of Five League Point. The 
husband (George ?) died and the wife married an Eng- 
lishman, old Johnny Goddard. She was a full-blooded 
Esquimau, and could kill a seal by imitating its appear- 
ance in dress and cry, just as quick as the next man, and 
a good deal quicker if the other was white ! She died at 
a great age about the year 1879. ^ ^^'^^ on the coast, 
after an absence of fifteen years, in 1880, and was told 
that she was about 100 years old, but I deemed that an 
exaggeration. Her sons were George and Andrew, 
both now dead of consumption. I buried George at 
Middle Bay in 1862. Andrew died since we came away. 
He had visited Halifax and had had his photograph 
taken ; I have a copy of it ; it is, however, of a dressed- 
up man, not my old Esquimau friend. Both of the 
sons were unmarried. A daughter of old Aunt Jenny 
Goddard had a daughter, I think by an American sailor. 
She was called Lucy Dukes, and (her mother dying) was 
adopted by Mrs. Goddard. I dare say you remember 
her there at Stick Point Island ; she was lame. She 
married little Johnny Goddard, nephew of old John, 
and they with several children occupy the island home. 



EXTI^XTIOX OF THE ESKIMO. 267 

She said to me in i8So, 'There's my Jenny, just look 
at her narrow features ; vou know Grannv had a verv 
narrow face I " And vet an old sailor once said that the 
old woman's face was as flat as a barn-door I 

*' There was another family of Esquimaux, whose 
residence was at St. Augustine ; I cannot recall the sur- 
name. I used to see one, 'Louis the Esquimau.' Mv 
impression is that one only of that familv was living in 
1880. for I brought home Esquimau dolls in full dress 
made by her. These I feel sure were all the remnants 
living in mv parish, say for fifty or a hundred miles up 
and down the coast. 

"The Esquimaux in Southern Labrador are a rem- 
nant. Once powerful there and numerous, thev were 
defeated in a battle fought on Esquimaux Island (at the 
mouth of the river) by the Indians ( ^Mountaineers), and 
what few were left went northward." 

We observed on Caribou Island traces of Eskimo 
occupation in the form of a circle of stones, like that 
observed farther north near Strawberrv Harbor. 

Along the coast north of Hamilton Inlet are a few 
Eskimos, half-breeds and probably remnants. At Roger's 
Harbor we took aboard as pilot to Strawberrv Harbor one 
Cole, a half-breed, part Eskimo and part Englishman, 
who had an Eskimo wife and two three-quarters-breed 
children ; his mother was an Eskimo. There were for- 
merly a few Eskimos living in this region, but thev had 
died ofif rapidly within a few years past ; our pilot from 
the States, Captain French, who had frequented this 
coast for many years, said that there was now but one 
Eskimo where there used to be twentv. Their disap- 
pearance seems due partly to that of seal, tish, birds,, and 



268 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

Other game, and partly to contact with the civilization 
of this coast, their close winter houses inducing con- 
sumption and other chest troubles ; but whatever the 
causes, the race is rapidly fading away, going by entire 
families. Cole was intelligent and could read and write. 

On our way to Strawberry Harbor we were boarded 
by an Eskimo who paddled up to our vessel in his kayak. 
He had been living in the bay during the summer. The 
next day I landed on a little flat islet near our harbor, 
and found traces of recent Eskimo occupation. An 
Eskimo family had evidently been summering there in a 
sealskin tent. The marks of their temporary sojourn 
were the circle of water-worn stones which had been 
used to pitch the tent, the feathers and bones of sea-fowl 
which had been shot or snared, scattered bones of the 
seal, and other unmistakable signs of Eskimo occupancy 
and of Eskimo personal uncleanliness. While here we 
learned that some Eskimos were spending the summer 
on an island hard by, and we tried to find one to pilot 
us to Hopedale, but were unsuccessful. We, however, 
obtained one who had received some education and was 
then living ten miles up the bay with a Norwegian in 
the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, his pay being- 
fifty dollars a year. 

At the time I visited Hopedale, which was in the 
summer of 1864, in the expedition of Mr. William Brad- 
ford, the well-known artist, the Eskimo population of 
that station was about two hundred. It was reported to 
us that during the preceding March twenty-four Eskimos 
had died of " colds ;" while at Okkak twenty-one had died, 
and the same number at Nain. Thus over a tenth part 
of the native population at these stations had died of 



THE MORAVIAN SETTLEMENTS. 269 

chest diseases in a single month. This high death-rate 
may be the result of their partial civilization and less 
hardy out-of-door life, but their houses are not very 
different from those their savage ancestors inhabited. 
The missionaries have wisely not attempted to force 
upon them European standards of living as regards dress 
and houses, and their system of trading with them as 
well as teaching them does not appear to have been ac- 
countable for this rapid decrease. On the contrary, 
anthropologists as well as humanitarians are under obli- 
gations to these devoted Moravians for their success 
in preserving on American soil this interesting peo- 
ple intact, unmixed, and with some of their harmless 
and more interesting habits preserved. They are, how- 
ever, doomed, judging by the past years' experience, to 
ultimate extinction. 

The Eskimo settlement of Hopedale, the only one we 
visited, was founded in 1782. It consisted in 1864 of 
about thirty-five houses, arranged with more or less dis- 
order in three principal streets. They are mostly built 
of upright spruce logs with the bark still on, dovetailed 
at the corners and banked nearly to the eaves with turf 
on the outside ; the roof rather flat, though irregular, 
with a skylight and small window in one side, either, as 
in the case of the more well-to-do families, consisting of 
a rude sash with four or six glass panes, or panes of the 
intestines of the seal sewed together. 

The house is entered through a long low porch, prob- 
ably the survival of an ancient style, i.e., the low porch 
of their snow houses through which their forefathers 
crept on their hands and knees. On entering we were 
obliged to stoop low and to circumspectly make our way 



270 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORiMER RANGE. 

between the carcass of a seal or a codfish, as the case 
might be, and a vessel of familiar, democratic shape and 
use, filled with urine, in which the sealskins are soaked 
before being chewed between the teeth of the housewife, 
an important step in the process of making or mending 
sealskin boots ; while Eskimo dogs of various sizes and 
colors blocked the devious way. 

Across the end of the interior, which was floored with 
wood, and in which we could not stand erect, was a 
wooden bed or seat, a sort of divan, on which sat a 
woman in spectacles weaving a basket of dried rushes 
which had been colored blue or red ; she nodded a wel- 
come and made us feel quite at home. The other be- 
longings of the house were a hearth or fire-place of a few 
pebbles situated on one side, a soapstone lamp, which 
was a flat oblong dish carved out of soapstone, of nor- 
mal Eskimo design, some knives of European manu- 
facture, needles and thread, while on a shelf we noticed 
an Eskimo Bible with the owner's name written in a 
neat hand on the fly leaf. On the whole the interior 
was neater and less offensive to the eye and nostril than 
we expected, as was the exterior. Beside the house, on 
a cross-pole supported by two uprights, rested a kayak, 
and over other horizontal poles hung drying a black 
bear's skin or dried codfish, as the case mieht be. The 
spaces between the houses were rudely drained, and sav- 
ing the usual refuse heap at the rear of the house, a dog's 
carcass, fish bones, and other rejectamenta, there was 
nothing particularly repulsive, though certainly nothing 
attractive about the houses. Two families sometimes 
live in the same house, which is partitioned off simply 
by a low rail passing through the middle. We do not 



ESKIMO DRESS. 2/1 

remember seeing any babies, and there seemed to be few 
children compared to the adults ; here as in the arctic 
regions the Eskimos having small families. 

The women's dress differs from that of the Greenland 
Eskimo in the much longer tails of their jackets, which, 
as seen in our engraving, nearly reach to the ground ; 
by the Greenlanders it is worn but little longer than the 
men's ; this difference, as seen on p. 247, was remarked by 
Cranch. Of late years woolen goods have partly super- 
seded sealskin, but the pattern has been retained. An- 
other difference is the form of the kayak ; that of the ■ 
Labrador Eskimo is much broader than the Greenland 
kayak, and of clumsier build, since the frame of the for- 
mer is made of spruce ; this renders the Labrador kayak 
perhaps safer. 

So far as we could see, the Labrador Eskimos at and 
north of Hopedale are full-blooded. Our engraving 
is from a photograph taken by Mr. Bradford, and 
gives an excellent idea of a Hopedale Eskimo couple 
with their baby. The faces apparentl}^ show no trace of 
foreign blood, while there is said to be not a full-blooded 
Eskimo in the Greenland colony, the intermixture with 
the Danes and Scandinavians in general being thorough- 
going. Few Europeans or Americans had previous to 
1864 visited the Labrador coast north of Hopedale, and 
there the race has been preserved in most cases intact, 
though there may now be an occasional intermixture with 
the Newfoundland fishermen, who now go as far as Nain. 

As to the number and distribution of the Eskimos 
north of the Moravian stations, we now have some defi- 
nite information from Lieut. Gordon's report of the 
Hudson's Bay expedition of 1884. He says: "lean- 



272 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

not help thinking that their numbers have sensibly di- 
minished, inasmuch as we found signs of their presence 
everywhere ; yet except at Port Burwell, Ashe Inlet, and 
Stupart's Bay, none were met with. About six miles 
south of Port Burwell [Cape Chudleigh] there are the 
remains of what must once have been a large Eskimo 
settlement, their subterranean dwellings being still in a 
fair state of preservation. At the present time, so far 
as I can learn, there are only some five or six Eskimo 
families between Cape Chudleigh and Nachvak. 

" Along the Labrador coast the Eskimos gather in 
small settlements round the Moravian Mission stations ; 
at these places their numbers vary considerably. Nain 
is reported to be the largest settlement, and its Eskimo 
population amounts to about two hundred souls" (p. 16.) 

The following notes will show how rapidly the Es- 
kimos are diminishing. In an extract in Hind's Labra- 
dor, published in 1863, from an article by Rev. L. T. 
Reichel, it is stated that the number of Eskimos dwelling 
along the coast, which is about 500 miles in length, "is 
computed at about 1,500, of whom 1,163 belong to our 
mission. There are about 200 heathen living to the 
north of Hebron, and there are said to be others scattered- 
here and there, but their number cannot be considerable, 
and some are settled at the establishments of the Hud- 
son's Bay Compan}^" 

In 1871, in a pamphlet entitled " Die Missionen der 
Briider-Unitat. L, Labrador," Rev. Mr. Reichel stated 
that the number of Eskimos is smaller than generally 
supposed. There are along 500 miles of the north coast 
scarcely 1,500 souls, of which 1,124 live at the six mis- 



PRESENT NUMBER OF LABRADOR ESKIMOS. 273 

sion stations. The " heathen" Eskimos north of Hebron 
scarcely number 200. 

A. von Dewitz, in his " An der Kuste Labrador's" 
(Mesky, 1881), informs us that within the last decade the 
extinction of the race has rapidly advanced, and that by 
the end of the century only the last remnants of this 
people will be surviving. In the southern mission sta- 
tions almost all the children die early, and in the north- 
ern stations the case is not much better. The last census 
gave scarcely 1,100 as living at the stations, and about 
50 in Hamilton Inlet (Aivektok Bay). There are also 
about 100 " heathen" Eskimos on Cape Chidley, and 200 
in Ungava Bay. 

Owing to the kindness of the Rev. B. La Trobe, Sec- 
retary of the Moravian Missions in London, I have re- 
ceived the following statistics in a letter dated August 30, 
1887 : " The number of Eskimos at our stations at the 
beginning of 1886 was as follows : Hebron, 207; Hope- 
dale, 160; Nain, 214; Okkak, 308 ; Ramah, 71 ; Zoar, 
90 ; total, 1,050. Including these, we reckon that there 
are less than 1,500 Eskimos on the strip of coast from 
Hamilton Inlet (Aivektok Bay) to Ungava. The race is 
comparatively pure, but there are some half-breeds, for 
Hudson's Bay Company's employes and other settlers 
have married Eskimo women. Whilst Christian influ- 
ences are brought to bear on the increasing number of 
fishermen and sailors visiting the stations, every barrier 
is set up against immorality. Thirty years ago the num- 
ber under charge of our missionaries was about 1,200, I 
expect purely Eskimos ; now it is about the same, in- 
cluding settler families. Zoar was commenced in 1865, 
and Ramah in 1871." 



274 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

It is interesting to note tiiat Reichel gives some facts 
showing the former (perhaps temporary) occupation by 
Greenland Eskimos of some of the outer islands of the 
northern part of the coast. At Kernertulik on Okkak 
Island is a cave where traces of a Greenlander's house are 
still to be seen. Javranat, on the mainland near Okkak, 
is so called from the Greenlander's word Javra, m,eaning 
"frightful," in allusion to a tragedy in which many Es- 
kimos perished, having been beaten by the strategy of 
their Greenland assailants. Reichel also states that in 
early times the Eskimos were feared on account of their 
robberies, which were often accompanied by murder and 
manslaughter, as far down in general as Newfoundland. 

Rev. J. J. Curling states : " By the last census in 1884 
the number of inhabitantsof the coast from Blanc Sablon 
up to Cape Chudleigh was 4,211. From Hamilton In- 
let to Cape Chudleigh there were 1,425, of whom only 
60 were Europeans." (Proc. Roy. Geog. Soc, Lon- 
don, X. 193. April, 1888.) 

Our imperfect account of the Eskimos of the Mora- 
vian settlements may be supplemented by the following 
remarks translated from Dr. K. R. Koch's excellent ar- 
ticle in the " Bremen Geographical Journal " for 1884, ^^ 
he spent thirteen months at Nain, and had excellent op- 
portunities for observing these people, and obtaining 
information reoardino- their life during: the different sea- 
sons of the year: ~ 

" While the marriages of the Eskimos are often child- 
less and the greater number of the children die young, 
the families of the white settlers are usually very robust, 
and the children strong and healthy, while the mortality 
is low. The number of the settlers increases therefore 



SUMMER AND WINTER LIFE OF THE ESKIMO. 275 

from year to year, and by this means they advance far- 
ther and farther towards the north. Besides this normal 
diminution of the Eskimo population, epidemics appear 
which are mainly introduced through the traffic with the 
fishing-vessels, and as the result an extraordinarily great 
percentage die ; for example, when the measles broke 
out about three years ago [1879 ?] about twenty per cent 
died. 

" The yearly life of the Eskimos is as follows : During 
the summer, and especially in the hunting season, that is, 
from May to December, the Eskimos with their families 
are scattered along the shore at their different fishing- 
places. After the men return in May from the reindeer 
hunting, they take their whole families with them to the 
islands lying near the seashore, to hunt seals. On their 
return to the northern seas the seals follow the outside 
edges of the drift ice, and the hunters are often obliged 
to drive far out in their dog-sledges to reach the seals' 
course. Hence they wait with their wives and children 
upon the outer islands until the coast ice has left the 
bays and straits between the islands. This takes place 
about the last of June. Then they hasten back in their 
kayaks to the stations where they have passed the winter 
months, in order to prepare their large sail-boats, which 
are generally purchased of the Newfoundland fishermen.* 
With these they fetch their families, which have in the 
meanwhile remained at the spring fishing-grounds, and 
go trout-fishing in the inlets on the river courses. Then 



* In 1864 the Eskimos had no sail-boats except one large schooner they built 
themselves, at Hopedale, and at that date there was little if any communication 
with the Newfoundland fishermen. 



2/6 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

follows for from three to four weeks the season of the 
cod fishery. 

"As already stated, the codfish appear in such vast 
quantities that it would be easy for the Eskimos to 
gather enough provision for the winter for themselves 
and their dogs, were it not for the innate thriftlessness 
of the Eskimo, which leads him as soon as, with the fish 
he has caught, he has paid to the mercantile house the 
remainder of the debt contracted in the foregoing win- 
ter, to again renew his credit, and to forthwith abstain 
from further fishing, which he might very well carry on 
until the end of September. In autumn the season of 
reindeer-hunting again returns, whereupon from Novem- 
ber till Christmas-time the Eskimos set out upon the 
autumnal seal fishery, when they seek to kill them in 
their kayaks through the thin ice, or to catch them in 
nets. This mode of hunting is extremely toilsome and 
dangerous. The temperature of the air is usually at this 
time far below the freezing point, sinking to from — io° to 
—20° C. and in December seldom rises above —20° C. In 
this temperature the Eskimo sits for hours at a time, 
bound fast in his kayak, paddling back and forth in the 
bays and straits, wet through by the icy spray of the 
waves, which at once freezes on his skiff and his clothes. 
If overtaken by a storm or the darkness of the night he 
must seek shelter in any station on the coast and there 
remain through the night watches or await the cessation 
of the tempest. In like manner must those work who 
have set their nets. Often on taking up the nets the 
seals fall out through the meshes, and must, with great 
pains, be fished out again. Even hauling the net out 
from the water is in the extreme cold very disagreeable 



SUMMER AND WINTER LIFE OF THE ESKIMO, 277 

work. They take the seals out morning and evening, 
and in the mean time they either sit concealed on the 
bank in order to shoot at the creature, or they paddle in 
their kayaks over the bay with the same object, for all 
seals killed with guns belong by contract to those who 
shoot them. 

" As soon as the bays and straits are covered with ice, 
the seal fishery, so far as it is carried on with nets, natu- 
rally ceases, and the Eskimos go to hunt those seals which 
have been shut into the bays by the ice. They often 
have to go over very unsafe places upon the still thin ice, 
and hence this mode of hunting is often accompanied by 
involuntary cold baths. 

"About Christmas-time all the Eskimos with their 
families again assemble in their winter houses at the mis- 
sionary stations where they are settled. Now comes the 
time of schooling for the children, and the season of rest 
and religious duties for the older persons. For more 
than a hundred years have the missionaries of the United 
Brethren been active on these shores, and it is owing to 
their zeal that nearly all the Eskimos (except a few fam- 
ilies which live quite far north of Killinek) have been 
converted. But they have not sought alone to Chris- 
tianize them, but also to civilize them, I believe that 
upon the whole coast there is not an Eskimo who can- 
not read, write, and cipher, although singularly enough 
they are not, to be sure, particularly given to this last ; 
on the other hand they have an extraordinary memory, 
and I believe they know well by heart the usual church 
tunes. Through close personal contact with the mission- 
aries they try to gain information regarding European 
customs. Every Sunday afternoon they are allowed to 



2/8 THE LABRADOR ESKIMOS AND THEIR FORMER RANGE. 

come to the missionary house, where illustrated papers 
which have been sent as presents are shown to them. 
They are especially attracted by music, and whoever 
plays to them always finds a grateful public ; and they 
are not listeners alone but also play themselves. Thus 
the organ or harmonicum used in the church service is 
played by Eskimos in the winter in the presence of the 
entire brotherhood, and the organ is accompanied by a 
small orchestra likewise composed of Eskimos." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

In its general features the peninsula of Labrador is 
an oblong mass of Laurentian rocks lying between the 
50th and 60th parallels of latitude. It rises abruptly 
from the ocean as an elevated plateau, forming the ter- 
mination of the Laurentian chain, which here spreads 
out into a vast waste of hills and low mountains. Thus, 
there is, except near Cape Chidley, no well-marked, single 
chain of mountains rising above spurs of smaller eleva- 
tions, but simply an interior height of land with isolated 
peaks, irregular in its course, from which streams take 
their rise and flow by various directions into the ocean. 

This plateau of hills and low mountains rises abruptly 
on the coast from the ocean to a height of from 500 to 
1,000 feet, and inland continues to rise in peaks to a 
height of from 1,500 to about 6,000 feet until it reaches 
the water-shed at a distance of 100 to 200 miles from the 
coast. On the western slope this plateau falls gradually 
away by an easy descent towards the shores of Hudson's 
Bay. Dr. Bell states that the northern coast increases 
gradually northward, " until within seventy statute miles 
of Cape Chudleigh, where it has attained a height of 
about six thousand feet above the sea." Thence the 
elevations or peaks decrease in height to Cape Chidley 

279 



28o THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

or Chudleigh, where they are fifteen hundred feet in 
elevation. He adds that the highest land of the Lab- 
rador peninsula forms a regular range of mountains 
parallel to the Atlantic seaboard, this range becoming 
progressively narrower from Hamilton Inlet to Cape 
Chidley. (Report for 1884, 10. DD.) 

On the south, the coast has a northeasterly trend, fol- 
lowing the coast-line of the southern Atlantic border of 
the continent. From Belle Isle, situated at the mouth 
of the Strait of Belle Isle, the eastern coast trends in a 
northwesterly direction to Cape Chidley, thus follow- 
ing the northwesterly trend of the northern Atlantic 
coast-line of the continent from Cape Race in New- 
foundland to the head of Baffin's Bay, near latitude 80°. 
It thus lies parallel to the western coast of Greenland. 
The northeasterly trend of the southern coast of Labra- 
dor is determined by the same course of the Laurentian 
range of syenites and gneiss rocks which forms the 
northern shore of the St. Lawrence Gulf and River. Its 
northwesterly course beyond the Strait of Belle Isle is 
likewise determined by a range of syenites and trap- 
rocks, upheaved in a general N. W. and S. E. direction. 
Thus the interior plateau of Laurentian gneiss seems 
surrounded by a framework of igneous rocks, which 
has apparently preserved to this day the original form 
and proportions of the Atlantic slope of the azoic 
nucleus of our continent. 

Laurentian Gneiss and Syenite. — Between Little 
Mecatina Island and Henley Harbor there is a great 
uniformity in the rocks, which are either wholly gneiss, 
or more commonly a syenitic gneiss, forming bold head- 
lands. At Bradore are two lofty hills of gneiss, esti- 



THE LAURENTIAN ROCKS. 28 1 

mated by Bayfield to be twelve hundred feet high. Be- 
tween Belles Amours and Anse-au-Sablon, on the north- 
ern side of the Strait of Belle Isle, occur the lower 
Silurian or Taconic rocks, which have been already fully 
described in the " Geology of Canada," published by the 
Canadian Geological Survey. In coasting within a mile 
or two of this interesting region we see the red sand- 
stones running out as a low point of land resting on the 
lofty, precipitous Laurentian rocks. Between Bradore 
Bay and Anse-au-Loup these sandstones and grits rise 
up to a height of five to six hundred feet, forming the 
coast-line ; and looking up through the bays and harbors 
we can see the low conical hills of Laurentian gneiss in 
the interior. At the eastern termination of this forma- 
tion the Laurentian rocks rise into high, rugged, and 
broken syenitic hummocks, in marked contrast with the 
regular terraces and smooth slopes of the fossiliferous 
sandstones and limestones. Approaching Henley Har- 
bor, there is a visible change in the scenic features of 
the coast ; the hills grow more regular in outline, and 
slope gradually to the water, giving us the peculiar 
physiognomy of the Laurentian gneiss. 

Upon entering Henley Harbor the dark gneiss is seen 
resting upon syenite, and at the point of contact inter- 
penetrated by irregular intrusive masses of the latter 
rock. On Henley Island, where these rocks crop out 
under the trap capping this island, there appears a true 
syenitic gneiss, very hard, distinctly stratified, and of the 
usual flesh color of the syenite. 

At this point I broke off some pieces of nearly un- 
stratified syenite which showed very distinctly the sedi- 
mentary origin of the rock, for the cavities were often 



282 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

partly rounded and contained rolled quartz pebbles, one 
being ovate and nearly two inches long. This syenitic 
gneiss was evidently an altered conglomerate. 

The syenite is the same as occurs on the coast of the St. 
Lawrence River, and while of the same color as that of 
the Maine and Nahant syenite, differs in its greater hard- 
ness and in the absence of black hornblende. It is com- 
posed of a flesh-red orthoclase or potash feldspar and a 
smoky and glassy quartz with minute particles of horn- 
blende disseminated sparsely through the mass. It is 
exceedingly tough and durable, as evidenced by the lofty 
capes and islands standing far up above the gneiss rocks 
spreading around the base of the overflows. 

At the northern end of the island the syenitic gneiss 
dips under the trap in a southeasterly direction at an 
angle of 50°. On an island a few rods farther to the 
north the gneiss assumes its usual character, being 
banded with light and dark strata, and has the general 
N. N. E. strike and dip indicated above. 

At Square Island, which lies at the mouth of a deep 
bay just north of Cape St. Michael occurs in large, 
conical hills what I judge to be the great anorthosite for- 
mation of Logan and Hunt, composed of large, crystal- 
line masses of labradorite, with a little vitreous quartz, 
and coarse, crystalline masses of hornblende. The lab- 
radorite is of a smoky color, very lustrous, translucent 
and opalescent, with cleavage surfaces often two inches 
in diameter, and on some of the faces presents a greenish 
reflection. This is but a slight approach to the rich 
blue reflections of the precious labradorite which I have 
seen only at Hopedale, where we obtained specimens 
brought from the interior by the Eskimos which 



THE LAURENTIAN ROCKS. 283 

compared favorably with specimens from the Ural 
Mountains, 

As the rock weathers, the greenish hornblende crystals 
project in masses sometimes two inches in diameter. This 
rock easily weathers, and large masses are detached by 
frosts and readily crumble to pieces. The gneiss rests 
on the south side of the hill. From the top of the hills 
here can be seen huge gneiss mountains at least two 
thousand feet high, rising in vast swells at a distance of 
fifteen to twenty miles in the interior, while the bay is 
filled with innumerable skiers and islets of gneiss. 

At Cape Webuc or Harrison the gneiss again appears 
upon the coast as a lofty headland faced with steep preci- 
pices of syenite. From off this cape are seen in the 
interior lofty mountains, of which the central and high- 
est peak is called Mount Misery, which in this clear 
climate can be plainly seen in pleasant weather by fisher- 
men at a distance of seventy-five miles in an air line. 
At Strawberry Harbor on the south side of Thomas Bay 
are lofty syenite hills. This point is fifty-five miles 
north of Cape Webuc. It is a small, deep hole in the 
coast, like a "purgatory," and an amphitheatre of rock 
rises around it in huge steps, affording a striking illustra- 
tion of the power of the frost and waves on this exposed 
coast. The rock is a hard, tough, flesh-colored syenite, 
with deep vertical and horizontal fissures resulting from 
the decomposition of thin trap dykes, thus causing huge 
blocks of syenite to be detached and fall down. In sail- 
ing twenty-five miles up this bay, the gneiss rises on 
each side from the ocean into hills eight hundred to one 
thousand feet in height. About Hopedale, which is in 
latitude 55° 30', the rocks are gneiss. Behind the Mis- 



284 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

sion House the strata are much disturbed locally ; at one 
locality the gneiss with veins of quartz and syenite 
trends northwesterly and dips 60° west. Trap dykes, 
prismatic in places, cross the island in a northeasterly 
direction. 

Northward of Hopedale the " Aulezavic gneiss" of 
Lieber forms the coast range of mountains, which, ac- 
cording to Lieut. Curtis (Trans. Geol. Soc, London, 
vol. ii. 1773), rise to a height of 2,733 f^^^ ^^ Mount 
Thoresby, on an island south of Kiglapeit. This 
observer states that Kiglapeit is evidently higher than, 
but inferior to, Kaumajet, which " has been seen thirty 
leagues from land," and is lower than Nachvak, which 
must be three thousand feet high. 

At Aulezavik Island near Cape Chidley, according to 
Mr. Lieber, " syenitic gneiss is the true rock of the 
region, the normal one, although so many modifications 
occur that entirely new rocks are produced, having no 
direct connection with the basic syenitic gneiss. In 
consequence of this we have beds in which quartz alone 
occurs, or beds entirely occupied by the red feldspar of 
the region, as is seen with very beautiful distinctness in 
some of the dangerous Pikkintit Islands. Again, some 
beds are composed of white quartz and tourmaline as in 
Norway, others contain scarcely anything but black 
hornblende, or tourmaline and garnets. Some are com- 
posed of green hornblende, approximating to actinolite. 
From this there seems to be a passage into a coarse 
diorite rather porphyroid in its character, but occurring 
in regular intercalated beds, not in dykes, and evincing 
no sign of an eruptive origin. Again, some beds are 
composed of quartz and garnet, while others are studded 



LAURENTIAN TRAP-ROCKS. 28$ 

with a beautiful golden-colored mica. A rock which ap- 
pears identical with aphanite, although not at all igneous, 
I also found, yet, with all this apparent variety, the transi- 
tions are too gradual to permit the differences to leave 
any effect on the landscape." 

For some notes on the geology of Hamilton Inlet we 
are indebted to Mr. Davies : " In some places mica slate 
was found — it is said that the Mealy Mountains are com- 
posed of this rock. I had no opportunity of verifying 
this fact, as I did not visit them. Granite was only seen 
in one place, viz., on Lake Keith, an expansion of the 
Grand River, about one hundred and thirty miles from 
its mouth. Specimens of chlorite schist were also pro- 
cured on this lake, as was also a specimen of sandstone, 
with disseminated grains of iron pyrites. At some dis- 
tance below the lake, primary marble, of a beautiful 
whiteness, was seen cropping out at the edge of the 
water ; it was found in contact with a quartz rock pass- 
ing into mica slate, having crystals of common garnet 
imbedded in it ; this was the only place where limestone 
of any sort was seen. 

" The shores of the bay where they are not of rock are 
generally composed of rolled fragments of syenite, mica- 
slate, quartz, hornblende, sometimes in large masses, 
feldspar, etc. Magnetic iron in the form of sand was 
also met with in some of the small coves." 

Laurentian Trap-rocks. — At Henley Harbor is a 
system of trap-rocks which have been upheaved in a 
N. N. E. and S. S. W. direction, in a course much more 
northerly than the direction which the Straits of Belle 
Isle assume. These rocks consist of three masses of co- 
lumnar basalt, capping the syenitic gneiss. It is a hard, 



286 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

fine, compact dolerite, breaking with a conchoidal frac- 
ture and metallic ring, and contains much iron. The 
mass is two hundred and fifty-five feet high on Henley 
and Castle Islands, and consists of two layers of vertical 
columns. West of these basaltic rocks, on the opposite 
side of the harbor, is a large trap overflow forming a hill 
over three hundred feet high, and apparently of the 
same age. It should be remarked that the two layers of 
basalt representing successive overflows incline at a very 
sli2:ht ano^le towards the S. W. The third mass of ba- 
salt is seen rising out of the ocean a few miles northerly, 
nearly in a line with the basalt of Henley Harbor. 

Dykes of this age were likewise seen at Strawberry 
Harbor, Cape Webuc, and at Hopedale, intersecting the 
Laurentian gneiss and syenite. Their age is plainly an- 
terior to the deposition of the undisturbed Cambrian, 
" primordial " strata at Anse-au-Loup, and on the New- 
foundland coast opposite. 

Domino Gneiss. — A system of lij'-ht-colored gneiss and 
trap rocks which lie in a depression of the Laurentian 
rocks, about one hundred and twenty-five miles long and 
probably twenty-five miles broad, stretching along the 
coast between Domino Harbor and Cape Webuc, agrees 
with the " Domino Gneiss" of Mr. Lieber. 

At Domino Harbor in lat. 53° 30'', these rocks attain 
their greatest development, occurring as a slightly schis- 
tose, light-colored gneiss, the base of which is a white 
granular vitreous quartz, with speckles of black horn- 
blende, with a few particles of a lilac-colored mica. 
There are also minute rude crystals of yellow garnet, or 
cinnamon stone, disseminated through the mass. No 
feldspar was detected in this rock. In some places the 



THE DOMINO GNEISS. 28/ 

rock was exceedingly fine, in others it assumed almost a 
conglomeritic aspect, from the presence of small masses 
of quartz. The quartz is often colored green. This 
rock weathers easily, leaving masses of quartz projecting 
on the surface ; it is comparatively soft, and has been 
greatly denuded. It thus forms at this locality a broad, 
low, flat plain about ten miles broad and fifteen to twenty 
miles long, through which rise bosses of trap. Its sur- 
face is but a few feet above the level of the sea, and to 
one just coming from the high coast to the southward 
this broad, naked flat, almost wholly destitute of vegeta- 
tion, with no valleys to shelter even a growth of spruce 
trees, and but slightly furrowed by glacial action, with 
patches of white rock glistening in the sun from between 
the dull green morasses and ponds that are everywhere 
scattered over its surface, — presents a strange and foreign 
feature of the coast scenery, startling from its very tame- 
ness. When in contact with the trap hills the rock is 
much harder, rising into higher elevatfons. 

Nowhere was I able to see the juncture of this rock 
with the Lower Laurentian gneiss, which rises from the 
edge of this formation into high hills and mountains. 
So smooth had this plain been levelled and worn by gla- 
cial and aqueous agents, that it was difficult to observe 
the dip and strike of the beds, which, when undisturbed 
by eruptive rocks, I am inclined to believe, dip easterly 
at a slight angle. At Dumplin Harbor, which is a bight 
in an island lying just S. E. of Huntington Island, the 
gneiss, when lying next to trap, dips at an angle of 35° 
S. E., the strike of the beds being northeasterly. At 
Tub Harbor these rocks come in contact with the Lau- 
rentian syenite. Between the lighter-colored gneiss 



288 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



were beds of a dark fine-grained hornblendic quartzose 
gneiss, capped by the syenite. At Indian Harbor, about 
thirty miles north of Tub Harbor, and on the opposite 
side of Hamilton Inlet, these same rocks appear. These 



iSaddic Is 
VIS udet 



-MAP OF A PORTION 



OF THE COAST OF 

.^^^c^o^ LABRADOR 

^ TluimasMiu/' 

o Sbnwhef'rt/fiarbffr 




Tub Is. 



Scuidwidi, £cuf 

Qxi:^aU'Sco-boT' 
\ spottedJs 
lisle ufFn/tcL: 



i^iSto/eej/ Is 






]MviLii/Ifar2>or 
^Asellelsle. 



rocks occur also at Sloop Harbor, rising two hundred 
feet high, and are capped by syenite, which is very pale 
in color, with particles of black hornblende. Here, as 
at Tub Harbor, the strata at the point of contact with 



TRAP DYKES. 289 

the syenite become a dark gneiss. The Esquimaux 
Islands, which lie off this coast, are composed of this 
light-colored gneiss. 

Invariably accompanying these rocks is a doleritic 
trap of a peculiar mineralogical character, occurring in 
overflows of a peculiar physiognomy, and upheaved in a 
direction at nearly right angles to that of the Laurentian 
dykes, thus following the general northwesterly trend of 
the Atlantic coast of the peninsula. 

This rock differs from the hard fine-grained trap at 
Henley Harbor in being coarsely porphyritic. It is 
composed of large crystalline masses of hypersthene and 
labradorite, this last being of a dark smoky color, and 
precisely such as described as occurring on Square Island. 
It seems to follow that this porphyritic trap is the result 
of the refusion of the anorthosite rock, which must con- 
sequently underlie this Domino quartzite. This is an 
argument for the unconformable bedding of this gneiss 
upon the Lower Laurentian gneiss, while this trap-rock 
is evidently of the age of the Domino gneiss, which it 
has somewhat disturbed. The Isle of Ponds is largely 
composed of these trap hills. Huntington Island is a 
large mass of trap. Tub Island, as its name betokens, is 
a peculiar, truncated cone of trap, resembling an inverted 
tub. These trap overflows extend northward to Cape 
North, which is a lofty headland of trap capping the 
gneiss, and thus adding very materially to the elevation 
of this as of all the other numerous gneiss promontories 
which run out from the main land. Occasionally an 
island is seen half black and half white, one side being 
composed of the dark trap-rock, and the other of the 
light-colored quartzite. Such is " Black and White," a 



290 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

very prominent island near " Indian Tickle," a harbor at 
the northern side of Hamilton Inlet. Here are some 
remarkable dykes which ascend the gneiss hills in huge- 
irregular zigzag crests, often crossing each other at right 
angles. 

Beyond this point the older Laurentian gneiss again 
appears, and forms the high bold shores extending to 
Hopedale, rising in the interior into lofty imposing^ 
mountains on whose tops lie patches of snow. 

Among the erratic rocks at Domino Harbor were 
some which show that in the interior are beds of jasper 
and chert. There occurred several small bowlders of jas-^ 
per and gneiss. The jasper was pale green, banded and 
striped by darker shades of green, while the irregularly 
alternating bands of syenitic gneiss appeared to be an 
altered quartzite, as it was found under a glass to be 
largely composed of a fine granular quartz-rock, with a 
little flesh-colored and white feldspar, and minute par- 
ticles of hypersthene. 

Several bowlders of chert occurred at Tub Island. 
This was a very tough, compact, silicious rock, lineated by 
fine veins of quartz. It weathers to a dull chalky white. 

It is most probable that these rolled stones were borne 
down from the interior by glaciers, but the chert pebbles 
may have been borne on floating ice from Frobisher's 
Bay, as Mr. Hall notices such rocks as being abundant 
there. At Tub Island I was shown specimens of mag- 
netic iron ore, which were brought from " Cartwright's 
Tickle," a few miles toward the main land. It occurred 
in veins half an inch wide.'''" 

* For further information regarding the Laurentian rocks of Northern Labra- 
dor, see Dr. Bell's observations in Report of the Canadian Geological Survey 
for 1884 and '85. 



THE LABRADOR DRIFT. 29I 

Quaternary Formation. — In studying the drift piie- 
nomena of Labrador as compared with those of the tem- 
perate zone, we shall at the outset find ourselves disap- 
pointed in our anticipations as to their relative develop- 
ment. In a region which has evidently been exposed to 
the most intense action of glaciers, prolonged over a 
period vastly longer than in Canada or New England, 
we have surviving this period of denudation and wasting 
away of the surface but few drift scratches remaining 
on any exposed surfaces below a height of five hundred 
feet above the sea, and superficial deposits which are re- 
duced almost to a minimum as compared with those of 
the temperate zone. 

In this absence of drift and more recent deposits, the 
Labrador plateau agrees exactly with all mountainous 
districts above the level of most deciduous trees. We 
are to look to the lowlands about their base for the 
debris and drift borne down by streams or glaciers from 
the mountain centres. The Labrador plateau has been 
greatly denuded. Its highest mountains have been trun- 
cated and their peaks sliced off by the denuding agent 
as if by a knife. The Domino gneiss has lost at least 
three hundred to four hundred feet of its comparatively 
soft strata, as evidenced by the lofty trap hills which now 
rise above the strata of altered sandstones. The trap .is 
as firm and hard at the top of the overflov/s as at the 
base. The loose material resulting from this long.con- 
tinued denudation is not now found in the interior or on 
the coast of Labrador, except in very small quantities. 
It was evidently conveyed southwards by icebergs and 
floe- or shore-ice, and forms the bottom of the St. Law- 
rence Gulf, and the banks and shoals southward. In 



292 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

most subarctic and all arctic lands the soil is but a few 
inches deep. 

In all temperate regions the superficial deposits have 
been characterized by Prof. Desor* to be " a succession 
of rocky hills and drift plateaus or valleys, which can be 
traced to the highest elevation of the country, near the 
dividing ridge, each following plateau or valley being 
commonly at a higher level than the preceding." This 
state of things obtains in Labrador, but there is an im- 
mense disproportion between the rocky hills and the 
drift deposits. We find no sandy plains or level tracts 
of glacial drift, or marine clays, distributed at intervals 
from the coast to the interior. They take the form of 
occasional, isolated sand-banks and cliffs of clay, of slight 
extent, overhanging rivers, and which by their secluded 
and retired positions have escaped the general denuda- 
tion by the Labrador current which must have passed 
over the lower levels of the peninsula subsequent to the 
glacial epoch. In travelling in the interior we find our- 
selves walking, when it is possible to walk or climb at 
all, over the rocky floor of this inhospitable region, 
smoothed in spots, though rarely striated by glaciers, 
but on the coast more generally mangled and torn by 
the action of shore-ice and frosts, which have here shown 
a vast power. 

The Leda clays are mostly confined to the head of re- 
tired bays, or if in more exposed situations, lie between 
bold headlands. The vast sand barrens of Canada and 
New England spreading into broad plains, are here rep- 
resented by precipitous masses of sand hanging upon the 

* Foster and Whitney's Report on the Geology of Lake Superior. 



GLACIAL Marks. 293 

steep mountain slopes. The traveller stumbles upon 
them in ascending the swift impetuous streams. 

The most abundant superficial deposits in Labrador 
are the ancient sea-beaches, which are found, according 
to Prof. H. Y. Hind, at all levels to a height of twelve 
hundred feet above the sea, at a distance in the interior 
of one hundred and twenty-five miles from the coast. 
They are evidently altered glacial moraines. 

Glacial Epoch. Drift Strics and Rozinded Rocks. — 
The Labrador plateau has been, at least near the Atlan- 
tic, moulded by ice to a height at least of twenty-five 
hundred feet above the level of the sea. In Southern 
Labrador Dr. Bell states that the valleys and hills, " up 
to the height of sixteen hundred feet, at any rate, have 
been planed by glacial action." (Rep. for 1884, ^'] D.D.) 
The gneiss mountains are moulded into large flat cones, 
often with a nipple-shaped summit ; the syenites are 
either moulded into domes or into high conical sugar- 
loaves ;"M;he anorthosite syenite at Square Island occurs 
in high rude cones ; and the trap overflows accompanying 
the Domino gneiss form rough irregular bosses. Only 
at one point, near the northern termination of the penin- 
sula at Cape Chidley, have the mountains by their alti- 
tude escaped the rounding and remodelling action of 
glaciers. These scraggy peaks, covered with loose square 
blocks detached by frosts from their slopes, remind us 
of the summits of Mount Washington in New Hamp- 
shire and Mount Katahdin in Maine, In a sketch of 
the former mountains by Mr. Lieber, as given in the 
" Report of the Coast Survey," the transition from the 
remodelled low mountains of the coast to the "wild 
volcanic-looking mountains" of the interior height of land 



294 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

is very marked. Mount Bache, which was determined 
by the expedition to be two thousand one hundred and 
fifty feet high, was " one of the smallest mountains." 
The larger ones are inaccessible. Those who have been 
upon the summits of Mount Washington or Katahdin 
will recognize how well Mr. Lieber's description of the 
summit of Mount Bache agrees with the physiognomy 
of the New England alpine summits : 

" A second cause of the irregularity of surface here is 
to be found in the tremendous power of the frost of a 
Labrador winter, the influence of the heavy covering of 
snow, and very probably also the former existence of 
glaciers, all of which we shall presently take occasion to 
discuss. 

" The effects of frost are manifested in a singularly 
forcible manner. The entire surface, where it is not too 
steep to enable debris to collect, is covered with broken 
masses of rock, cubes of ten feet and less scattered in 
wildest profusion. Sometimes a patch of moss, the grass 
and heather of this country, fills up the crevices, but gen- 
erally we may look down into them far and deep with- 
out ever detecting the base upon which the rocks rest, 
hurled aloft, as they appear, by the hands of Titans. In 
scaling, in company with Mr. Venable, the summit of 
Mount Bache, on an occasion intended mainly for taking 
its altitude barometrically, we enjoyed the finest oppor- 
tunities for studying this phenomenon. The summit and 
sides of the mountain present few steep precipices. I 
speak comparatively only, and in reference exclusively to 
Northern Labrador. Yet, scattered helter-skelter over all, 
and piled up in endless number, the whole surface is cov- 
ered with such loose rocks. The difficulties of locomotion 



A MINIATURE GLACIER. 295 

may readily be conceived. In scarcely a single instance 
'did we see the gneiss beds still in situ, and in only one 
or two exceptions some giant wedge seemed to have 
driven them asunder. Yet none of the blocks were 
rounded. Attrition of no kind had influenced them to 
any perceptible extent, neither had atmospheric influ- 
ences altered the color, hardness, and composition of their 
exteriors ; it was simply a wilderness of unchanged 
blocks of the gray gneiss. 

" There was a puzzle. Whence came these broken 
rocks ? There was no higher spot whence they might 
have fallen. The slight protrusion of the uptilted beds 
of gneiss in situ, to which I have referred, alone seems 
to have been permitted to remain for the purpose of 
instructing us. Clearly, that force which had riven its 
beds asunder, no other than the frost, had broken the 
Test from their foothold and. prepared them for removal 
by another coming into play at a later season — the thaw- 
ing down-gliding snozu. Many of the blocks were prob- 
ably but slightly removed from their original position, 
perhaps barely turned over or merely forced a little out 
of place. Yet the effect to the eye of the beholder 
would be as great as if they had been transported hun- 
dreds of miles. 

" When we descended from the mountain we crossed 
over a broad patch of snow, deeply packed (twenty feet 
deep), which clearly taught us how the blocks were 
moved. In truth, this was a miniature glacier, and a 
regular moraine was piled up along its edges. It is im- 
possible for us to form any estimate of the amount of 
snow which may fall per square foot in a winter, but 
from the fact that such quantities were still remaining 



296 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

late in July, and certainly they never altogether thaw 
away, we may reasonably infer that during its downward 
progress, either as snow or water, a tremendous force 
must be exerted, a force quite sufficient to account for 
the characteristic surface phenomenon just described." 

Contrary to the statement of Sir John Richardson 
in his " Polar Regions," both the accounts of Parry and 
the earlier arctic voyagers, and especially C. F. Hall in 
his " Arctic Researches," prove that on the northern 
edge of the American continent, and as low down as lat. 
62°, and upon land rising between one thousand and tWQ 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, there are mers 
de glace of great extent, discharging glaciers into the sea 
which present ice-fronts one hundred feet high. 

Parry, in his second voyage (p. 12), states that on 
the north side of Hudson's Strait, after passing by Res- 
olution Island, there "is a smooth part of the land 
rather higher than that in its neighborhood, and for an 
extent of one or two miles completely covered with 
snow. The snow remains upon it, as Mr. Davidson in- 
formed us, the whole summer, as they find the land pre- 
senting the same appearance on their return through the 
Strait in the summer. This circumstance, which has 
obtained for it the name of 'Terra Nivea' upon the 
charts, I do not know how to account for, as the height, 
of the land above the level of the sea cannot certainly^ 
exceed a thousand feet." 

Mr. C. F. Hall, during his residence in Frobisher's 
Bay, had excellent opportunities of observing during all 
seasons of the year both ends of the Kingaite range of 
mountains on ' Meta Incognita' which support this mer 
de glace, which he named the Grinnell Glacier, and which. 



GLACIERS NORTH OF LABRADOR. 297 

on the coast annually discharges icebergs from its streams. 
He describes it as being two miles long, starting from a 
sea of ice which extended many miles N.W. and S.E., 
reaching across the peninsula of Meta Incognita, nearly 
to the strait which divides Frobisher's Bay from Hud- 
son's Strait. Mr. Hall states that " from the informa- 
tion I had previously gained, and the data furnished me 
by my Innuit companion, I estimated the Grinnell 
Glacier to be fully one hundred miles long. At various 
points on the north side of Frobisher's Bay between Bear 
Sound and the Countess of Warwick's Sound, I made 
observations by sextant by which 1 determined that over 
fifty miles of the glacier was in view from, and southeast 
of, the President's Seat. A few miles above that point 
the glacier recedes from the coast and is lost to view by 
the Everett chain of mountains; and as Sharkey [an 
Esquimau] said, the ou-tt-e-too (ice that never melts), 
extends on lues-se-too-ad-loo (far, very far off). He added 
that there were places along the coast below what I 
called the President's Seat, where this great glacier dis- 
charges itself into the sea, some of it in large icebergs. 

" From the sea of ice down to the point where the 
abutting glacier was quite uniform in its rounding up, it 
presented the appearance, though in a frozen state, of a 
mighty rushing torrent. The height of the discharging 
face of the glacier was one hundred feet above the sea." 

Given, as stated below, the rise of the Labrador penin- 
sula only five hundred feet above its present level, and 
we must have had during the glacial period most exten- 
sive glaciers fed by broad seas of ice resting on the table- 
lands, reaching above the line of perpetual snow ; as only 
one hundred and twenty miles northward of Cape Chidler 



298 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

we find the snow-line reaching as far down as one thou- 
sand feet, or thereabouts, above the sea-level. We are 
inclined to doubt the accuracy of Parry's estimate of the 
height of these table-lands, as the height of Mount Bache 
is over two thousand feet, and it just reaches the lowest 
limit of the snow-line, which in Greenland is two thou- 
sand feet above the sea. 

Owing to the extensive weathering of the rock, glacial 
grooves and scratches occur very rarely.^ I doubt not 
they will be found abundantly after ascending five hun- 
dred to eight hundred feet from the sea-level, for below 
-this point the action of the waves and shore-ice has 
•obliterated both striae and loose drift. We have eood 
evidence that an enormous glacier once filled the great 
fiord, Hamilton Inlet, which at its mouth is forty miles 
broad. Peculiar hmoid furrows were observed on the 
.northern and southern shores about forty miles apart, 
-which would seem to justify the conclusion, that the 
glacier was of that breadth where it descended into the 
sea. The best examples of these lunoid farrows oc- 



* J. F. Campbell, who visited this coast in 1864, states in his work entitled 
'" Frost and Fire," that at Indian Island, lat. 53° 30' "the striae pointed into 
Davis's Strait at a height of four hundred feet above the sea; at Red Bay, in the 
Strait of Belle Isle, they aimed N. 45° E. at the sea-level." 

At Newfoundland, about St. John's, " the striae which were found were near 
the coast, and seem to indicate large land-glaciers moving seawards. At St. 
John's the marks run over the Signal Hill, five hundred and forty feet high, from 
W. and N. 85° W. eastwards; at Harbor Grace, from S. 75° W. down the bay 
northeastwards; at the head of Conception Bay they fill a large hollow, over- 
run hills, and point from S. 15° W. northwards. Vast terraces of drift stretch 
along the base of rounded hills at the head of Conception Bay, at Harbor Grace, 
.and at Old Purlican, near the end of the bay, sixty miles off. At the head of 
ithe bay most of this drift seems to have come from the hills. Opposite to 
■granite hills are numerous blocks of granite; opposite to sandstone and slate 
hills, sandstone and slate bowlders abound." — " Frost and Fire," ii." 1865, p. 240. 



GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS. 299 

curred at Indian Harbor on the northern shore of Ham- 
ilton Inlet, near the fishing estabHshment of Mr. Nor- 
man. This harbor is a narrow " tickle" or passage, where 
the Domino quartzites, very smoothly worn and pol- 
ished, are capped by trap overflows, and run under the 
water to the depth of thirty feet, forming a" polished and 
smooth bottom to the harbor. The marks occur about 
twenty-five feet above the water's edge, and below the 
line of lichens which are kept at a distance by the sea 

spray. 

These crescent-shaped depressions, which run trans- 
versely to the course of the bay, were from five to four- 
teen inches broad by. three to nine inches long, and 
about an inch deep vertically in the rock. Their inner 
or concave edge pointed southwest, the bay running m 
a o-eneral S.W. and N.E. direction. They were scattered 





GLACIAL LUNOID FURROWS AT INDIAN TICKLE, LABRADOR. 

irregularly over a surface twenty feet square. When 
several fallowed in a line, two large ones were often 
succeeded by a couple one quarter as large, or vice versa. 
Also at Tub Harbor, on the southern coast of this bay, 
similar markings, but less distinct, occurred about the 
same distance above the sea, and on a similar polished 
quartzite. These agree precisely with the " lunoid fur- 
rows" of Mr. DeLaski, as observed by him in great 
abundance on Isle-au-Haut, in Penobscot Bay, speci- 



300 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

mens of which he has deposited in the Museum of the 
Portland Society of Natural History. 

These were the only glacial markings I observed. It 
should be noted that Mr. Jukes, in his "Geology of 
Newfoundland," states that he never observed any glacial 
striae during his explorations on that island. They 
were observed in abundance by Professor Hind about 
fifty miles from the mouth of the river Moisie, where 
occurred "gneiss terraces five in number, the highest 
being about one thousand feet above the sea, and backed 
by a stunted birch- and spruce-clad mountain some eight 
hundred feet higher still. The sloping sides of these 
abrupt steps are rounded, polished, and furrowed by 
glacial action. Cuts half an inch deep and an inch or 
more broad go down slope and over level continuously. 
Rounded and water-worn bowlders are perched here and 
there on the edge of the uppermost terrace. These 
strange memorials of the drift begin to be more com- 
mon" (p. 133), 

Fine examples of rounded and embossed rocks oc- 
curred at a bay situated a few miles to the westward of 
Little Mecatina Island. Here the numerous islets of 
syenites assume a low dome-like shape, whose shores 
descend to the water's edge by a gentle slope, and are so 
smooth and polished that one can with difficulty descend 
them when wet without slipping. 

On the southern coast the eminences all present their 
longer slopes to the northward, and their lee sides de- 
scend seaward and southward in sudden falls and slopes. 
On the contrary, on the eastern and Atlantic shores 
the stoss or struck sides look westward, and the lee side 
is on the eastern side of the hills, thus showing that the 



GLACIATION OF HUDSON S STRAIT. 3OI 

denuding and abrading agent moved downwards from 
the top of the water-shed — that is, always nearly parallel 
to the coast. 

The adjoining illustration brings out clearly some of 
the characteristic features of the scenery of the coast of 
Labrador. In the foreground the rocky shore of the 
Horsechops, as the deep fiord is called, which is situated 
far up on the eastern coast of Labrador, has been ground 
■down, smoothed, and polished by the great mass of land- 
ice which formerly filled Hamilton Bay and moved slowly 
down from the table-land in the interior, and whose ice- 
front must have presented to the sea a wall — perhaps 
five hundred to one thousand feet high. 

Across the fiord on the shores of the bay, which rise 
abruptly in great rocky terraces — also a characteristic 
feature of Labrador and arctic landscapes, — may be seen 
scattered snow-banks, which linger on these shores as 
late as August, while those in the more shaded, protected 
places may live on until the early snows in September 
give them a renewal of life, so that their existence may 
become perennial. 

About Cape Chidleythe hills and rocks are shown by 
Mr. Lieber's drawings to have been rounded and moulded 
by ice to a height corresponding to that of Mount Bache, 
as noticed above. 

Dr. R. Bell shows that the basin of Hudson's Bay 
may have formed a glacial reservoir receiving streams of 
ice from the east, north and northwest, and south and 
southwest. The direction of the glaciation on both sides 
of Hudson's Strait was eastward. "That an extensive 
glacier passed down the strait may be inferred from the 
smoothed and striated character of the rocks of the lower 



DISTRIBUTION OF BOWLDERS. 305 

levels, the outline of the glaciated surfaces pointing to 
an eastward movement, the composition of the drift, and 
also from the fact that the long depression of Fox's 
Channel and the Strait runs from the northwestward 
towards the southeast, and that this great channel or sub- 
merged valley deepens as it goes, terminating in the 
Atlantic Ocean. Glaciers are said to exist on the shores- 
of Fox's Channel, and they may send down the fiat-top- 
ped icebergs which float eastward through the lower part 
of Hudson's Strait into the Atlantic. During the drift 
period the glacier of the bed of Hudson's Strait was 
probably joined by a contribution from the ice wdiich 
appears to have occupied the site of Hudson's Bay, and 
by another, also from the southward, coming down the 
valley of the Koksok River, and its continuation in the 
bottom of Qngava Bay. The united glacier still moved 
eastward round Cape Chudleigh into the Atlantic." 

Distribittion of Bowlders. — The whole surface of the 
country is strewn thickly with bowlders. After ascending 
five or six hundred feet above the level of the sea, and 
penetrating into the interior, their presence is especially 
marked. Near the shore they are rarely seen, being 
covered by vegetation. We must look for them about 
the edges of ponds and along the banks of the rivers, 
and especially in raised beaches. I am also inclined to- 
think that their abundance near the coast is greatly less- 
ened by their having been carried off by shore-ice into 
the sea, and there rearranged into submarine beaches. 

No loose, single bowlders scattered over the surface 
of the country were seen on the coast from Mecatina to 
Square Island. They only occurred as stated above,, 
along the courses of rivers, by ponds, and rearranged 



304 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

into beaches. But we first saw them on a hill, estimated 
roughly to be one thousand feet high, a few miles north 
of Cape St. Michael, at Square Island, where they lend 
a new feature to the landscape. At this level they were 
strewn sparsely upon the tops of the surrounding hills. 
One was about fifteen by forty feet in size. A large pro- 
portion were well rounded, while others were angular. 
The greater proportion were of syenite, a few small ones 
were of greenstone. 

Northward of this locality I did not have an oppor- 
tunity of ascending the mountains above the level of the 
ancient coast-line. 

Professor Hind likewise found very few bowlders at a 
distance from the bed of the Moisie, for a distance of 
fifty miles from its mouth. But on ascending the water- 
shed, and penetrating farther inland, they everywhere 
grew more numerous. A few miles beyond " Burnt 
Portage" on this river, " huge blocks of gneiss, twenty 
feet in diameter, lay in the channel or on the rocks 
which here and there pierced the sandy tract through 
which the river flowed ; while on the summits of moun- 
tains and along the crests of hill ranges they seemed as 
if they had been dropped like hail. It was not difficult 
to see that many of these rock fragments were of local 
origin, but others had travelled far. From an eminence 
I could discover that they were piled to a great height 
between hills three and four hundred feet high, and from 
the comparatively sharp edges of many, the parent rock 
could not have been far distant." * 

Also at Caribou Lake, an expansion of the same river, 

* The Labrador Peninsula, p. 227. Also, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, Jan. 20, 
1864, p. 122, On Supposed Glacial Drift in the Labrador Peninsula, etc. 



RAISED BEACHES. 305 

he States, "the long line of enormous erratics skirting 
the river looked like druid's monumental stones ; for in 
many instances they were disposed in such a manner as 
would almost lead one to suppose they had been placed 
there by artificial means" (p. 229). 

Of this same expedition Mr. Cayley has published an 
account in the " Quebec Transactions," where we have 
the statement of this observer that bowlders are very 
thickly strewn over the surface and on the summits of 
mountains 2,214 ^^^t high, and situated one hundred and 
ten miles from the coast, being near the head-waters of 
the Moisie. " Immense numbers of bowlders had for the 
last few miles strewn the sides of the mountains, in some 
cases almost seeming to make up the very mountains 
themselves ; there being this difference, that whereas the 
rock itself in situ is granitic, the bowlders in every case 
are of gneiss." * 

Nowhere did I see on the coast of Labrador any de- 
posits of the original glacial clay, or " unmodified drift." 
Upon the sea-shore it has been remodelled into a strati- 
fied clay, and the bowlders it once contained now form 
terraced beaches. Professor Hind, however, notices the 
occurrence of " drift clay, capped by sand," in precipitous 
banks rising seventy feet above the level of the Moisie 
River, twenty miles from its mouth. 

Before giving an account of the marine clays and their 
fossils, which should naturally come in at this place, I 
would draw attention to the numerous raised beaches 
that line this coast. 

Raised Beaches. — Some of the finest examples of 
raised beaches and rock-shelves representing ancient coast- 

* Up the River Moisie, loc. cit., N, S,, vol. i. p. 88. 



3o6 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



lines, about four hundred feet above the present coast- 
line, are seen in the lowest Silurian rocks on both sides 
of the Strait of Belle Isle. The following notes and 
sketches were made while coasting along the northern 
shore, which rises in high sandstone and gritty bluffs, 
contrasting in their regular water-worn outlines most 
strongly with the peculiar swelling curves of the Lauren- 
tian gneiss which rise near Bradore — according to Bay- 





f ^Tininr jiirf f ;||!' |f fir-ifnr-^: :n^^;^ 



TERRACES AT ANSE-AU-LOUP, (A) {B) AND (C) LOOKING EASTWARD AT THE 
NORTHEAST END OF THE CAMBRIAN FORMATION. 

field's measurements, one thousand two hundred feet 
above the sea — or the jagged, rough, and hummocky 
outlines of the rude syenitic hills, which rise four hun- 
dred feet above the sea. At Anse-au-Loup, as seen 
from one half to one mile from the shore, the land rises 
on the west side of the bay in three very regular terraces 
(^A), the lower of which is covered with debris. On the 
east side the land is much more irregular, descending in 
buttressed steeps like the Palisades on the Hudson, 
though far exceeding them in height. On the east point 



RAISED BEACHES. 307 

are five terraces on the N. "VV. side with heavy buttresses, 
and beyond four terraces come in sight (^). The strata 
here are nearly horizontal, dipping under the Strait at 
a very slight angle. At the eastward termination of the 
formation are again seen five very regular terraces (C) 
running out in a long low point, beyond which rise the 
syenite hills. At Blanc Sablon five terraces are very 
distinctly marked, the second of which is the highest ; and 
there is a beach of huge bowlders very regularly packed 
by the action of the waves, as observed by Admiral Bay- 
field. 

In Chateau Bay and Henley Harbor are some fine ex- 
amples of ancient sea-margins. They occur in recesses 
in the shore which have been sheltered from the denud- 
ing agency of the waves and strong arctic currents, 
which have swept around this bend in the coast with 
great power. The most plainly marked example forms 
the eastern shore of Henley Harbor, being the western 
short of Henley Island. This beach, which is one hun- 
dred and eighty feet high above the water-level, is com- 
posed of three well-marked terraces, which become 
steeper as we go from the bottom to the top. The 
upper terrace begins at the base of the basaltic columns 
capping this island, and is covered at its upper edge with 
the debris from this mass of trap. The two lower ter- 
races at the northern end of the island present a delta- 
like expansion facing the northwest. On these terraces, 
which are destitute of the usual covering of moss and 
Empetrum, can be most distinctly seen the windrows of 
pebbles and gravel thrown up by the retreating waves. 
A continuation of this beach is seen on Castle Ishnd 
just south. (See p. 134.) 



308 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

On the eastern side of the same island is a beach of 
the same height, but much steeper, as it directly faces 
the ocean, and more irregular than the one just described, 
as its surface is broken by jagged masses of syenitic rock 
which protrude through it, and by large masses of trap 
which have fallen from the cliffs above. 

North of Henley Island is a broad flat beach consist- 
ing of two low terraces, on the uppermost of which, and 
commanding the harbor, are the ruins of an old fort 
built during the last century. Also on the mainland 
near the head of the bay are situated in bights in the 
shore three low beaches, each composed of two terraces 
overgrown with vegetation. They are all apparently of 
the same height, and correspond in height with that of 
the second beach or terrace on Henley Island. On the 
east side of Pitt's Arm is another similar beach, and still 
another at the head of the bay on the west side of the 
stream emptying into this bay. Upon this latter beach 
are large bowlders, often two feet in diameter. Across 
the bay from Henley Island is a lofty steep beach slop- 
ing towards the east, and of the same height. 

It is an important fact that the present contour of the 
coast, from the sea-level to a height of about five hun- 
dred feet, also extends to at least fifty fathoms, or three 
hundred feet below the surface of the water. Such we 
found to be the fact in dredging for a distance of nearly 
six hundred miles along the coast. The jagged nature 
of the rocky terraces at Strawberry Harbor, so interest- 
ing a feature in the coast scenery, extends at least to a 
depth of two hundred and forty feet, a few rods from the 
shore, as in anchoring with the kedge anchor it would 
drop on to a rocky shelf, and then drag and fall twenty 



RAISED BEACHES. 3O9 

fathoms lower on to another syenitic shelf ; such a suc- 
cession of rocky terraces we have no doubt extended 
much farther below the point sounded by our ship's 
lead. 

Again, dredging was carried on off Henley Harbor on 
a pebbly bottom three hundred feet below the surface 
which formed the continuation of the same beaches 
which rose some two hundred feet above the sea-level. 
It follows from this that as both the jagged rocks and 
submerged beach must have formerly formed a coast-line, 
the land once stood at least three hundred feet higher 
than at present, and it is more than probable, much 
higher. Such an elevation would have produced the 
most important modifications of climate, lowering it 
greatly, bringing the snow line farther down towards the 
coast, and must have led to a great accumulation of the 
snow and land-ice. 

At the settlement in Chateau Bay is a remarkably 
steep beach, which ascends half-way up the side of the 
hill, which is about five hundred feet high. It is com- 
posed of large bowlders very closely packed in layers, 
without any gravel to fill up the interstices, and slopes 
to the level of the water at an angle of at least 40°, being 
the steepest beach I saw on the coast. It consisted of 
two terraces, the lowest almost precipitous in its descent. 
This beach, when below the level of the sea, was evi- 
dently exposed to the action of the powerful Labrador 
current which piled these huge water-worn rocks into a 
compact mass which served to resist the waves, while the 
coarse gravel and sand were borne rapidly away farther 
out to sea on to lower levels. It is a general rule that 
all beaches on this coast with a northerly and easterly 



3IO THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

exposure to the open sea, are much steeper, and com- 
posed of much coarser materials, than those in more shel- 
tered situations. 

At Domino Harbor are beaches more than one hun- 
dred feet high, and in sailing up the sound which lies 
between the mainland and the numerous islands that line 
this coast, twelve beaches were seen rising from forty to 
one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, and 
composed of two or three terraces. 

In Sloop Harbor, twenty-five miles south of Cape 
Harrison, is a noble shingly beach nearly two hundred 
feet high on the south side of the harbor, consequently 
facing the north. 

Thomas Bay, which lies about thirty miles south of 
Hopedale, afforded, along both of its shores for thirty 
miles from the sea, fine examples of raised beaches, com- 
posed for the most part of three terraces. High beaches 
also occurred at Hopedale. The mission house and 
buildings belonging to this Moravian settlement also 
rest upon raised gravelly beaches, which afford soil deep 
enough for gardens and cemeteries. 

It is to be regretted that from want of time and proper 
instruments we were unable to measure the heights of 
these beaches and their respective terraces. Those given 
are simply approximative, with the exception of the one 
noticed as occurring upon Henley Island. The mass of 
basalt was rudely measured by Lieut. Baddeley, and es- 
timated to be two hundred and fifty-five feet high. The 
terraces rise to the base of the pillars, which he estimated 
to be one hundred and eighty feet above the sea. 

I believe it will ultimately be found that all these 
beaches rise above the present level of the sea at uniform 



RAISED BEACHES. 31 1 

heights, and will be found generally to agree in this re- 
spect with similar beaches in the St. Lawrence River and 
the coast of the British colonies and New England, 
after making due allowances for local oscillations of the 
land. At Chateau Bay it could easily be seen that all 
the terraces composing the different beaches were of the 
same height ; and, so far as memory would show, in the 
absence of actual measurement, all those beaches ob- 
served farther northward presented terraces which very 
generally corresponded in height with those of Chateau 
Bay. 

I am informed by Captain Ichabod Handy of New 
Bedford, Mass., who has spent several years in Hudson's 
Bay engaged in the whale fishery, and is a close ob- 
server, having coasted in a whale-boat the whole shore 
from Nain to Resolution Island in lat. 62°, that there 
are several very high raised beaches near Hebron, and 
also near Nain, one of which he roughly estimated to be 
three hundred feet high. He observed that the beaches 
north of Nain increased in height. There were also 
beaches on Button Island. He noticed one on Reso- 
lution Island, about two hundred feet high, which was 
composed of three terraces. On the Lower or East 
Savage Island he described to me a plain of soft clay ele- 
vated fifty feet above the sea, into which he "sank knee- 
deep," and perceived in it numerous " clams and mussels," 
and also the skeleton of a whale, the " boar-head " whale 
{Balaena bobps), stranded upon the surface. This ancient 
sea-bottom was flanked by a raised beach from thirty to 
forty feet in height. 

At Sir Thomas Roe's Welcome he describes the 
beaches as being higher than any observed southwards. 



312 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

and he also noticed clay-banks, containing shells, raised 
above the present level of the sea. 

Prof. Hind has noticed some remarkable beaches far 
in the interior of the southern part of the peninsula, and 
at a great height above the present level of the sea. 
Though this author does not refer to their rearrangement 
by the currents and waves of the sea, his description of 
the immense deposits of rounded and water-worn bowlders 
agrees precisely with similar raised beaches both upon, 
and a mile back from, the coast, observed by myself, 
where they are covered by moss and Empetrum, or 
stunted spruces. At " Burnt Portage," upon the river 
Moisie, one hundred miles from its mouth, and 1,857 
feet above the level of the sea, this author describes a 
" hill of bowlders or erratics, all water-worn and smooth, 
without moss or lichen upon them, and piled two or three 
deep, and, for aught you know, twenty deep. . . . 
The well-worn masses of all sizes, from one foot to 
twenty feet in diameter, and from one ton to ten thousand 
tons in weight, are washed clean. ... I could without 
difficulty see three tiers of these 'travelled rocks,' and 
in the crevices the charred roots of trees which had 
grown in the mosses and lichens which formerly clothed 
them." 

Another feature of great interest in this connection are 
the rocky terraces or steps which have been hewn out of 
the solid rocks along the coast for a height of five hun- 
dred feet above the present level of the sea, and mark 
the oscillations of the old coast-line ; and as there occur 
in the interior of the country one thousand feet above 
the present coast-line similar lines of erosion, they pre- 
sent the best evidence we have, to determine how far 



ROCK TERRACES. 313 

above its present level the glacial sea stood. These 
rock terraces could only have been formed so fully as 
seen here during a vast period, and the ice-foot of Dr. 
Kane, to which their formation is probably due, must 
have remained on the shore during the entire year. Fine 
examples of similar terraces are described and figured in 
Kane's " Explorations," vol. ii. p.8i. At various points 
along the coast the joint action of frost, the waves, and 
floating ice can even now be seen building up these steps 
in the slopes of trap and syenitic rocks, by taking advan- 
tage of the jointure and cleavage planes which cross at 
nearly right angles. At Strawberry Harbor the syenitic 
rocks have broken oif into huge cubical blocks of many 
tons' weight. The rock abounds in cracks and fissures, 
into which the ice has entered wedge-like, and burst them 
asunder, while the fragments have been borne away by 
shore-ice. Thus for a height of five hundred feet the 
shore consists of a series of steps ten to thirty feet high, 
forming broad shelves on which the sea-birds build, and 
where a little vegetation lodges. Where the shore con- 
sists of trap-rocks, as at Domino Harbor and Tub Island, 
the steps are much smaller and more numerous. At 
Domino there are regular steps in the quartzites, which 
lend a very peculiar feature to the shores of the harbor, 
as at a little distance the rocky slopes descending by 
hundreds of steps to the water, appear like a lofty beach 
of bowlders. At Sloop Harbor these rocky steps are of 
vast extent, their tops shelving inland, and in profile the 
rocky promontory presents a strange serrated outline 
when viewed from the sea. The lofty sugar-loaf syenitic 
island a few miles south of Hopedale, noticed previously, 



314 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



and which is seven hundred feet high, has its surface di- 
vided into four terraces of rock, which reach two thirds 




q s 



^ 



5 < 
5 s 
pa w 



w H 



u en 

o cq 



D o 






of the distance up its sides from the water, thus affording 
a means of estimating the different heights at which the 



ROCK TERRACES. 315 

land paused in its oscillations upwards.* We must again 
refer to Mr. Hind's work for an account of similar rocky 
terraces in the interior of the peninsula. Near the 
*' Lake where the land lies," he describes the gneiss hills 



ROCK TERRACES ON A CONICAL PROMONTORY NEAR HOPEDALE, LABRADOR. 

as rising in "gigantic terraces." He likewise speaks of 
^'gneiss terraces five in number, the highest being about 
one thousand feet above the sea," and he states that the 
sloping sides of these abrupt steps are rounded, polished, 
and furrowed by glacial action. f 

Mr. Cayley has described them also quite fully : " We 
now made the fifth portage [fifty miles from the mouth 
of the river, and 370 feet above the level of the sea], 
where we first met with some curious natural steps or 
terraces, which were continually repeated on our march. 
They were usually five or six in number, averaging three 
or four feet in heio-ht ; the distances between each rather 
irregular, just affording room enough to take two or 
three paces, and their surfaces presenting the appearance 
of having been artificially constructed. They were of 

* " Terraces or banks of gravel and ancient shingle beaches were observed 
on either side of the inlet [Nachvak Inlet] at various heights up to an estimated 
elevation of two thousand feet." Bell's "Observations," 1S85, Rep. Geol. 
Surv. Canada for 1885, p. 7, DD. 

f Hind's Labrador, p. 133. 



3l6 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

the common dark hornblendic gneiss, and ran in a gen- 
eral northeast and southwest direction." * 

No glacial striae upon these terraces were observed 
near the shore. It is evident that this process of terrac- 
ing the crystalline rocks by frosts and shore-ice began 
during the glacial epoch. At present we must assume 
that the striae found by Professor Hind upon these 
rocky steps far inland were graven by angular stones 
frozen into the bottoms of glaciers, for we find no such 
marks at present upon those now upon the coast, which 
shows how insufficient is the action of floating shore- or 
floe-ice, or grounded bergs even, in striating so regularly 
these hard crystalline rocks. 

We saw a good example of rocks polished by the ice 
and waves at Gore Island Harbor, a point westward of 
Little Mecatina Island. On the faces of several cliffs 
forming perpendicular walls facing a narrow passage 
into which the waves rushed with great force in the 
calmest days, the sea-wall was smoothly polished and 
water-worn for ten feet above its shore-line, w^hile above, 
the face of the cliff was roughened by the action of frost. 

Upon this coast, which during the summer of 1864 
was lined with a belt of floe-ice and bergs probably two 
hundred miles broad, and which extended from the Gulf 
of the St. Lawrence at Belles Amours to the arctic 
seas, this immense body of floating ice seemed directly 
to produce but little alteration in its physical features. 
If we were to ascribe the grooving and polishing of 
rocks to the action of floating ice-floes and bergs, how is 
it that the present shores far above (500 feet), and at 

* Up the River Moisie, loc. cit., p. 82. 



THE FLOE-ICE. 317 

least 250 feet below the water-line, are often jagged and 
angular, though constantly stopping the course of masses 
of ice impelled four to six miles an hour by the joint 
action of tides, currents, and winds? No bowlders, or 
gravel, or mud were seen upon any of the bergs or 
masses of shore-ice. They had dropped all burdens of this 
nature nearer their points of detachment in the high arctic 
regions. The bergs all bore evidence of having been 
repeatedly overturned as they were borne along in the 
current. Thr floe-ice was hummocky, which is a strong 
proof of its having come from open straits in the polar 
regions, the masses looking as if having been frozen and 
refrozen, jammed together, and then piled atop of each 
other by currents and winds long before appearing upon 
this coast ; while the bergs exhibited old water-lines pre- 
senting different angles to the present water-level. The 
only discoloration noticed was probably caused by seals 
resting upon and soiling the surface. One bowlder was 
noticed by a member of the party resting upon an ice- 
berg off Cape Harrison in August. 

This huge area of floating ice, embracing so many 
thousands of square miles, was of greater extent, and re- 
mained longer upon the coast in 1864 than for forty 
years previous. It was not only pressed upon the coast 
by the normal action of the Labrador and Greenland 
currents which, in consequence of the rotatory motion 
of the earth, tended to force the ice in a southwesterly 
direction, but the presence of the ice caused the constant 
passage of cooler currents of air from the sea over the 
ice upon the heated land, giving rise during the present 
season to a constant succession of northeasterly winds 
from March until early in August, which further served 



3l8 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

to crowd the ice into every harbor and recess upon the 
coast. It was the universal complaint of the inhabitants 
that the easterly winds were more prevalent, and the ice 
" held " later in the harbors this year than for many sea- 
sons previous. Thus the fisheries were nearly a failure, 
and vegetation greatly retarded in its development. But 
so far as polishing and striating the rocks, depositing 
drift material and thus modifying the contour of the sur- 
face of the present coast, this modern mass of bergs and 
floating ice effected comparatively little. Single ice- 
bergs, when small enough, entered the harbors, and 
there stranding, soon pounded to pieces upon the rocks, 
melted, and disappeared. From Cape Harrison in lat. 
55° to Caribou Island was an interrupted line of bergs 
.stranded in eighty to one hundred or more fathoms, 
often miles apart, while others passed to the seaward 
down by the eastern coast of Newfoundland, or through 
the Strait of Belle Isle. 

The Labrador Banks. — Prof. H. Y. Hind* has pointed 
out the existence of shoals or fishing-banks off the Ailik 
Head and Kippokak Bay, composed of morainal mat- 
ter brought down the fiords and pushed into the sea. 
That the fiords and bays were, however, excavated by 
the glaciers themselves we are much inclined to doubt, 
since these bays and fiords were natural valleys, w^hich per- 
haps date back to Laurentian times, and which have been 
for many geological ages excavated by streams, though 
during the glacial epoch remodelled by the ice and sub- 
glacial streams. Referring to Kippokak Bay, the next 

* The effects of the fishery clauses of the treaty of Washington on the fish- 
eries and fishermen of British North America, 1877, Part IL pp. 68, 69, quoted 
in Goode's Fishery Industries of the United States, V. vol. i. 134-137, 1887. 



THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 3I9 

bay north of Ailik, he remarks : " But the glaciers of 
Labrador have probably left even more valuable records, 
in the form of moraines, of their early existence here 
than deep fiords or innumerable islands. These are the 
shoals and banks which lie some fifteen miles outside of 
the islands, and on which icebergs strand in long lines 
and in groups. I have styled them the Inner Range of 
Banks, to distinguish them from a supposed Outer 
Range in deeper water, where large icebergs sometimes 
take the ground. The inner banks, as far as they are 
known, are stated by fishermen to have from twenty to 
forty fathoms of water on them. Commander Max- 
well's soundings between Cape Harrison and Gull Is- 
land, near Hopedale, and just outside of the island zone, 
rarel}'- show depths greater than forty fathoms. In one 
instance only, in a distance of about one hundred and 
ten nautical miles, is a depth of fifty-nine fathoms re- 
corded. 

^'Absence of Islands on the Southern Labrador. — The 
Admiralty chart portrays a very important confirmation 
of the Labrador coast-line, from Saint Lewis Sound 
to Spotted Island. The trend of the coast-line between 
the Battle Islands, south of Saint Lewis Sound, and 
Spotted Island, Domino Run, a distance of sixty-five 
miles, is due north, and, with very few exceptions, there 
are no islands off the coast throughout this distance, ex- 
cluding the group close inshore between Spotted Island 
and Stony Island. As soon as the coast-line begins to 
turn northwesterly islands become numerous and con- 
tinually increase in number as far as Cape Mugford, and 
even towards Cape Chudleigh. Between Cape Harrison 
and Cape Mugford, the island zone may be estimated 



320 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

as having a depth of twenty miles from the mouth of 
the fiord seawards. The cause of the general absence 
of -islands south of Spotted Island and Stony Island can 
probably be traced to the never-ceasing action ol north- 
ern ice driven on the coast-line, where it suddenly makes 
its southerly bend by the influence of the rotation of the 
earth upon the arctic current. This current sweeps past 
the Labrador coast with a speed of from i^ to 2 knots an 
hour, and a westerly pressure, due to the earth's rotation, 
which may be estimated at about eleven inches. That 
is to say, the mean level of the sea on the coast of Labra- 
dor is supposed to be about eleven inches above the level 
it would assume if uninfluenced by the earth's rotation. 
As soon as the ice-ladened current reaches Spotted Island 
it is in part relieved from this pressure by the trend 
of the coast from southeast to due south ; hence the cur- 
rent changes its course suddenly and onto the land. 
But the effect of this sudden change in the direction of 
the current near the shore is to throw the icebergs onto 
the coast from Spotted Island to Cape Sit. Lewis, where 
they may be seen stranded each year in great numbers. 
The islands which doubtless once existed here have been 
removed by constant abrasion, acting uninterruptedly 
for ages, and with the islands the moraines lying sea- 
wards. We may thus trace the cause of the vast differ- 
ence between the distribution of stranded icebergs south 
of Spotted Island and northwest of it. In one case they 
are stranded near the coast-line, wearing it away and 
deepening the water near it, assisted by the undertow ; 
in the other case they are stranded some fifteen miles 
from the island fringe, and continually adding to the 
banks the debris they may bring, in the form of mud 



THE LABRADOR FISHING-BANKS. 321 

Streaks, from the glaciers which gave them birth in the 
far north and northeast. It is more than probable that 
this distribution of icebergs has a very important bearing 
upon the food and feeding of the cod, which justifies me 
in referring here with so much detail to the action of 
glacial ice. 

" The Inner Range of Banks, — The foundation of the~^ 
inner range of banks consists, very probably, as already 
stated, of glacial moraines. In their present state they 
may reasonably be assumed to be formed in great part 
of remodelled debris brought down by the same glaciers 
which excavated the deep fiords. 

"The absence of deposits of sand in the form of mod- 
ern beaches on every part of the Labrador coast visited 
this season, except one, was very marked. The excep- 
tional area observed lies between Sandwich Bay and 
Hamilton Inlet, Cape Porcupine being the centre. It 
is protected from the northern swell of the ocean by the 
Indian Harbor Islands and promontory. Here large 
deposits of sand are seen, covering many square miles in 
area. The reason why sandy beaches are not in general 
found on this coast, notwithstanding that enormous 
quantities of rock are annually ground up by coast-ice 
and ice-pans driven on the shore, arises from the under- 
tow carrying the sand seawards and depositing it on the 
shoals or banks outside of the islands. 

•' It may be advisable here to advert to a popular error 
which assumes that the depth of water in which an ice- 
berg grounds is indicated by the height of the berg 
above the level of the sea. It is commonly stated that 
while there is one ninth above there will be eight ninths 
of the berg below the sea-level. This is approximately 



322 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

true only with regard to volume or mass of the berg, 
not with regard to height and depth. A berg may show 
an elevation of one hundred feet above water, and yet 
its depth below may not exceed double that amount, but 
its volume or mass will be about eight times the mass it 
shows on the surface. Hence, while icebergs ground in 
thirty and forty fathoms of water, they may expose a 
front of one hundred or one hundred and fifty feet in 
altitude, the broad, massive base supporting a mass about 
one ninth of its volume above the sea-level." 

Oscillation of the Land. — From all the indications 
noticed casually by us, such as the position of beaches 
apparently very recently raised above the sea-level, so as 
to be just beyond the reach of the waves, the land is 
slowly gaining on the sea. The Rev. C. C. Carpenter, 
missionary at Caribou Island, in the Strait of Belle Isle, 
also informs me that this is his impression, gained both 
from his observations and information given by the set- 
tlers. To this last source Mr. J. F. Campbell is indebted 
for the statement in his "■ Frost and Fire," that the 
coast of Labrador is slowly rising. On the other hand, 
the land appears to be sinking about Hudson's Strait. 

In Dr. Bell's Report for 1884 of Lieut. Gordon's 
Hudson's Bay Expedition, it is stated that ancient stone 
structures, erected by the Eskimos, were observed, and 
Dr. Bell remarks : " From what I have seen of the situa- 
tions which the Eskimos in various places in Hudson's 
Bay and Strait choose for their camps, there appeared 
to be little doubt that they had lived here when the sea- 
level was twenty to thirty feet higher than it is at pres- 
ent." 

River Terrace Period. — Owing to the great denuda- 



THE LEDA CLAYS. 323 

tion of all drift material, and the hilly character of the 
country, we find no broad terraced river valleys, such as 
characterize more temperate regions. On the contrary, 
the rivers are a succession of ponds, connected by rapids, 
where the stream plunges from one rocky terrace to the 
next one below, taking the direction of natural ravines. 
Though the volume of these rivers during the Terrace 
epoch, or period of great rivers, may have been greater 
than now, as evidenced by a few small terraces upon 
their banks, we have no evidence that they ran in much 
wider channels than at present, owing to the great height 
of their banks. 

The Occurrence of the Leda Clays in Labrador. — At 
the mouth of Salmon River, a small stream flowing into 
the Strait of Belle Isle three miles east of the mouth of 
the Esquimaux River, occurred a clay-bank about ten 
feet high, and situated just above high-water mark, 
which was dark blue and free from bowlders. It con- 
tained in abundance Aporrhais occidentalis, Serripes 
gronlandicuSy and Cardium Hayesii. 

This deposit of clay is of more recent age than the 
deposits noticed below, as it was a few feet higher, and 
situated more inland. It undoubtedly rests upon the 
lower fossiliferous gravel-beds, though I did not see the 
point of contact. 

The most important deposits occurred at Caribou 
Island at the mouth of the Strait of Belle Isle, at Pitt's 
Arm in Chateau Bay, and at Hopedale. They consisted 
of sandy clays and a coarse gravel found between tide 
marks, and extending beneath the water. Should the 
present banks now lying off the coast be raised and ex- 
posed to view, we would have an identical deposit. All 



324 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

the Stones and pebbles of this ancient sea-bottom, finely- 
exposed at Hopedale, are covered with nullipores and 
polyzoa ; the Mya truncata still remains perpendicular 
in its holes, and the most delicate shells, with their epi- 
dermis still on, are unbroken, and their valves often 
united by the ligament. The delicate Myriozoum has 
preserved its fine markings nearly as perfectly as in 
specimens dredged at the present day, and the cases of 
the delicate Spiochsetopterus are still preserved. It is 
evident that' this deposit has slowly and almost imper- 
ceptibly risen some four hundred or five hundred feet,^ 
without any paroxysmal movement of the continent, 
over an extent of coast some six hundred miles in 
length. 

This rise of the Labrador peninsula must have accom- 
panied the rise of the polar regions, including Arctic 
America and Greenland, and in fact all the land lying^ 
in the northern hemisphere. Many facts in the distri- 
bution of fossils in these glacial beds, and the present 
relations of these beds to deposits above and beneath 
them, tend to prove that the glacial epoch occurred 
simultaneously over all the arctic regions and the 
northern temperate zone, and that the submergence and 
subsequent rise of the continental masses and outlying 
islands were synchronous in both hemispheres. Pro- 
fessor Haughton has summed up the evidence of such 
a rise from raised beaches and ancient sea-bottoms in the 
American Arctic Archipelago,"^ The researches of Dr. 



* " McClure found shells of the Cyprina islandica, at the summit of the Cox- 
comb Range, in Baring Island, at an elevation of five hundred feet above the 
sea-level; Captain Parry, also, has recorded the occurrence of Venus (probably 
Cyprina islandica) on Byam Martin's Island; and in the recent voyage of the 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 325 

Kane in the extreme north of Greenland enabled him 
"to assert positively the interesting fact of a secular 
elevation [480 feet] of the crust commencing at some as 
yet undetermined point north of 76°, and continuing to 
the Great Glacier and the high northern latitudes of 
Grinnell Land." (Vol. ii. p. 81.) 

We need not here allude to the similar oscillations in 
northern and central Europe to still greater heights 
above the present level of the ocean. 

At various points along the coast from Caribou Island, 
where they were abundant, to Hopedale, occurred in the 
drift gravel beds associated with the fossils, numerous 
pebbles and small bowlders of a light silicious bedded 
limestone, which contained numerous Silurian fossils. 
Lieber mentions finding pieces of limestone on the shore 
•of Aulezavik Island. There can be little doubt that 
these bowlders were transported on ice from the Silurian 
basins in the arctic regions on the west side of Baffin's 
Bay. Perhaps their origin may by future observers be 
traced to the Silurian limestones found at the head of 
Frobisher's Bay by Hall. Such fragments are not now 
to be seen on the floe-ice coming down from the north. 

A large proportion of the species mentioned in the 
following lists (reprinted from the Memoirs of the Boston 
Society of Natural History, i. 231-234) occurred in great 
abundance and in a good state of preservation, so 
that they could be compared very satisfactorily with 



'Fox,' Dr. Walker, the surgeon of the expedition, found the following sub- 
iossil shells at Port Kennedy, at elevations of from one hundred to five hundred 
feet: Saxicava rugosa , Tellina pi-oxima, Astarte arctica (borealis), Mya iiddeval- 
Jensis, Mya trtmcata, Cardium sp., Bticcinuiti tittdahim, Acniea testudinalis , Bala- 
nus uddevallensis." — Appendix to McClintock' s A^arrative. (Amer. ^dit. p. 370.) 



326 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

recent specimens dredged upon the coast. Most of the 
species, after careful and repeated comparisons with the 
recent examples, did not present any appreciable differ- 
ences. In a few instances there were characters found 
by which the fossils could be distinguished from the recent 
shells of the same species, and those I have carefully 
enumerated. 

Nullipora polymorpha Linn. This plant occurred 
abundantly at Caribou Island. At Hopedale it was pro- 
fusely abundant, growing in large free masses or encrust- 
ing shells and stones. 

Eury echinus drobachiensis Verrill. ( Toxopneustes dro- 
bachiensis A. Agassiz. Echimis graitularis Say.) Frag- 
ments of the shells and numerous spines occurred abun- 
dantly at Caribou Island and Hopedale. 

Lepralia Belli Dawson. Encrusting pebbles at Hope- 
dale. One colony also on a shell. The young cells 
were large, with crowded and sometimes perforate, gran- 
ulated conical ovicells. The avicularia are situated either 
in front of the opening or crowded to one side, and are 
two in number. Both old and young correspond pre- 
cisely with a specimen received from Dr. Dawson. 

Lepralia pertusa Thompson. This species occurred 
on the shells of Bttccinum cretaceum. It agrees well 
with the large, oblong and coarsely punctate recent 
specimens. It is well figured by Dawson in the Canadian 
Naturalist and Geologist, Feb. 1859, P* ^5' ^g"- i^- 

Lepralia ciliata Johnst. This form also occurred 
frequently with the preceding. The cells are convex,, 
the avicularia are present, projecting over the aperture. 
The surface is punctate. 

Celleporaria surcularis Packard, Can. Nat. Dec. 1863, 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 32? 

p. 410. Occurred frequently on Lamellibranch shells 
in large and thick masses at Caribou Island and Hope- 
dale. 

Myriozozim subgracile D'Orbigny. {Millepora trun- 
cata Fabr., Faun. Groenl.) Fragments of the stems of 
this graceful species occurred abundantly at both locali- 
ties. 

Rhynconella psittacea (Gm.). Perfect valves were 
found at Caribou Island, and others were given me 
which were reported to have been found three miles from 
the mouth of the Esquimaux River. Other shells, such 
as a Cardhcm and Cardita borealis, also came from the 
same place, showing that they had been washed out of a 
drift disposit on the river. This species was abundant 
at Hopedale, where the valves adhered by their ligament. 

Pecten islandicus Linn. This was not common. Sev- 
eral ponderous valves, larger than I have seen elsewhere, 
had the ribs united into groups of two or three, separated 
by sulci of equal width ; but in young and fragile sub- 
jects the ribs were equally distributed, and differed in no 
respect from the living young, or from those of the same 
age, from the drift clays of Maine and New Brunswick. 

Yoldia myalls Stimps. A specimen of Yoldia arctica, 
received from Dr. Liitken, approaches Y. myalis more 
than Y. sapotilla. It is however, longer, and the lunule 
is not so short and deep as in Y. myalis. One valve. 
Hopedale. 

Leda mimita Moll. {Area minuta Fabr., Faun. 
Groenl.) Caribou Island, rare. Common at Hopedale. 

Modiolaria discrepans Moll. One broken valve. 
Hopedale. 



328 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Mytilus edults Linn. Fragments of large valves were 
abundant, but young shells were uncommon. 

Cardium Hayesii Stimps. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. 
Philad. p. 581, 1862. This species occurred both at 
Hopedale and Caribou Island. 

Serripes gronlandiais (Chemn.) Beck. Caribou 
Island, frequent. Chateau Bay. 

Astarte Banksii Leach, Zool. Beechy's Voyage. (^A. 
IVarhamt Hancock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii., 
1846, p. 336, pi. v., figs. 15, 16. A. Richardsoni Reeve, 
Last of the Arctic Voyagers, ii. App. A. fabula Reeve, 
1. c. ; A. Latirentiana Lyell ; A. co7npressa Daws,, — not 
of European authors.) A fine series of specimens, re- 
cent and fossil, from Labrador, and fossil from Maine 
and the river St. Lawrence, has convinced me that the 
numerous variations of form which this species assumes 
are of local origin, arising from differences in habitat or 
age. Among a number oiA. Lattrentiana Lyell, received 
from Montreal through the kindness of Dr. Dawson, are 
some thinner and more finely striated than usual, but I 
have recent specimens and also fossils from Labrador 
agreeing with them. The species varies in the length of 
the shell and the form of the posterior end, but the shape 
of the anterior end, the sulci and the hinge characters are 
in all the varieties very constant. 

Very elongated forms are like A. Warhami Hancock, 
which we would consider as a synonym of this species. 
The varieties A. Richardsoni and A. fabula have oc- 
curred in the same locality, at Dumplin Harbor at 
the mouth of Sandwich Bay, Labrador, where I have 
dredged them alive. 

Astarte striata Gray. One specimen from Hopedale. 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 329 

It did not differ from drift shells found at Brunswick, 
Maine. This shell, as it occurs fossil, is thicker, more 
ponderous, more equilaterally triangular ; the beaks are 
directed more anteriorly, the teeth are much larger, and 
the lunule broader and shorter, than in A. Banksii. 

Astarte compressa Linn. {A. elliptica Brown.) 
Common in all the beds, but not so abundant as A. 
Banksii. 

Cardita borealis Conr. Very abundant with the pre- 
ceding. 

Macoma sabulosa Morch. ( Tellina proxima Brown.) 
Of frequent occurrence. 

Cyrtodaria siliqica Daudin. Several valves at Caribou 
Island. 

PanopcEa norvegica Sprengel. A perfect valve of this 
shell occurred at Caribou Island. 

Mya truncata Linn. Both the short and common 
elongated varieties of this species occurred, especially at 
Hopedale, in great profusion. 

Saxicava arctica Desh. Large valves occurred in 
great profusion in all these beds. 

Chiton marinoreus O. Fabr. Several valves were 
found at Hopedale. 

Acmaea testudi^ialis (MlilL). One specimen occurred, 
encrusted with NuUipora. 

Lepeca cceca Moll. (/^. Candida Couth. ; P. cerea 
Moller, Reeve.) Frequent. 

PM7tcturella noachina (Leach). {Diadora noachina 
Gray.) Frequent. 

Margarita cinerea (Couth.). One specimen. Hope- 
dale. 



330 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Margarita varicosa (Mighl. et Adams). Frequent at 
Hopedale and Caribou Island. 

Turritella erosa Couth. As numerous in proportion 
to the succeeding species as at present on the coast. 

Turritella reticulata Mighl. et Adams. (7". lactea 
Moll.) Profusely abundant in both places. 

Turritellopsis acicula (Stimps.). One specimen. 
Caribou Island. 

Aporrhais occidentalis Beck. Several. Caribou 
Island. 

Ltmatia gronlandica Moll. Frequent. 

Natica clatisa Sovvb, Frequent. 

Adniete viridtila Stimps. At Caribou Island. 

Beta robusta Pack. No specimens of this species 
occurred at Caribou Island associated with the other 
species ; it seems quite rare, and has not occurred in a 
living state. Though very distinct from any of the other 
species, it might be mistaken for a very much shortened 
and thickened B. americana. It is much shorter and 
broader than B. americana ; the whorls are five in num- 
ber, anguJated, giving the shell a well-marked turretted 
form ; the fourth whorl is one half to two thirds as long 
as the first, which is unusually large in proportion to the 
rest of the shell. The aperture is broad, regularly ovate ; 
canal long, narrow, oblique, and not gradually widening 
towards the aperture. It has much fewer ribs than B. 
americana, there being thirteen on the lower whorl, 
where in B. americana are eighteen. Length .18; 
breadth . 1 1 inch. 

Beta americana Packard. {Fusus turriculus Gould, 
Invert. Mass. Bela scalaris Packard, Can. Nat. and 
Geol. 1863, — not of Moll, Index Mollusc. Gronl.) l^a- 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 33 1 

riety. One specimen occurred fossil at Caribou Island 
which differed in no respect from a recent specimen 
dredged in fifteen to thirty fathoms at Square Island, 
which will be further noticed below. 

Bela exarata^oVi. (^De/rancmexara^a MoW., Index 
Mollusc. Gronl. ; Pletirotoma rugulatus " Moll." Reeve, 
Icon. Conch, f. 345.) Caribou Island. Common. 

Be/a WoodianalAoW. (^Pleurotoma karpulariaQowXh.^ 
Bost. Journ. ii., p. 183. Plezcrotoma lezicostoma Reeve, 
Icon. Conch, f. 278.) Caribou Island. The most com- 
mon species of the genus in these deposits, though very 
rarely found living by us ; it is of large size and much 
eroded. 

Bela dectissata (Couth.). It occurred very rarely at 
Caribou Island. 

Bela pyramidalis (Strom.). {Pleztrototna rufa Couth.} 
Not common ; at Hopedale and Caribou Island. 

Bela violacea Mighl. et Adams. {Defrancia cylin- 
dracea Moll. Ind, Moll. Gronl. ; Pleurotoma gronlandica 
Reeve, 1. c. fig. 343.) Of common occurrence at Cari- 
bou Island. 

Buccinuni glaciale Linn. Caribou Island, an imper- 
fect specimen. 

Bttccinum grdnlandicum Hancock. Annals and Mag. 
Nat. Hist, xviii. p, 329, pi. v., figs. 8, 9, 1846. Pitt's 
Arm, head of Chateau Bay ; one specimen, with the 
outer coating of shell worn off. 

Buccinum tenue Gray. {Bttccinum scalartforme Beck, 
Stimps., Can. Nat., Oct. 1865, p. 14.) One specimen 
occurred at Caribou Island, wanting the lip and spire, 
but showing well the abbreviated longitudinal waves 
characteristic of the species. 




332 THE GEOLOGY Ol- THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Buccinuni undatum Linn. {B , undattmi Greene, 
Gould, Dawson ; B. labradoi'ense Reeve, Packard, Can. 
Nat. viii. p. 416, 1863.) 

Tritonofusus cretaceus {Buccinum cretaceum Reeve, 
Icon. Conch ; Packard, Can. Nat. viii., p. 
417, pi. ii. fig. 6, 1863.) This interesting 
species, now found not uncommonly on 
the coast of Labrador, also occurs fossil 
not unfrequently at Caribou Island. It 
differs in no respect from living forms. 

Ftisus {NeptMned) tornatus Gould. 
Rarely found fossil at Caribou Island, and 
in the blue clay at the mouth of Salmon 
River. 

Fusus {Neptuned) labradorensis Pack. 
CRETACEUS. Shcll fusiform ; whorls moderately convex, 
sutures deeply impressed, the upper ones somewhat flat- 
tened, spire elongated, acute, lower whorl ventricose, 
covered with rather coarse revolving strise. On the 
lower whorl are twenty nearly straight, coarse, flattened 
folds, which on the succeeding whorls run the entire 
length of each whorl. Aperture ovate, columella con- 
cave, smooth ; canal moderately long, oblique, slightly 
tortuous, spire a little longer than the shell. Length, 
one inch ; breadth .48 inch. One specimen at Caribou 
Island. It differs from Ftisits pullus Reeve (fig. 89) in 
being apparently a much thicker shell, in the longer 
canal, and in the more ventricose body of the shell, with 
the coarser revolving lines. 

Fustis torhiosus Reeve, Belcher's Last of the Arctic 
Voyagers, ii., p. 394, pi. 32, fig. 5. Our specimens dif- 



TRITONOFUSUS 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 333 

fer from the description, in the absence of the long tor- 
tuous canal which gives the species its name. The fos- 
sils have the same convexity of the whorls, which are 
covered by similar revolving striae ; but the first whorl is 
less contracted at the origin of the canal, and the canal 
itself is from half to two thirds the length of the first 
whorl, while in F. torhtosus the canal nearly equals the 
length of the whorl. In this respect it approaches Fmsus 
pygmcE2is Gould, from which it is distinguished by its 
size, the greater convexity of its whorls, and the deeply 
impressed revolving lines. 

This was a frequent shell in the gravel deposit on 
Caribou Island, and large specimens measured nearly 
three inches in length. 

Trichotropis borealis Sowb. et Brod. Not uncom- 
mon at Hopedale and Caribou Island. 

Spirorbis glo7nerata Mlill. Occurred as usual on shells 
at Caribou Island. 

S. vitrea Stimps. Only young an-d flattened speci- 
mens occurred. 

SpiochcEtopterus typus Sars, Fauna littoral is, ii. Frag- 
ments of tubes belonging apparently to this worm were 
found fossil at Caribou Island. 

Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Numerous fragments 
occurred at Caribou Island and Hopedale. 

In the above list occur several forms of great interest 
which have not been found fossil elsewhere, or in no 
such profusion, and seem to be perhaps characteristic of 
this fauna and to have had their metropolis either in this 
area or in Arctic America, in contradistinction from 
Arctic Europe. Such are 



334 'i'HE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Cardita borealis Be la exarata, 

Astarte Banksii, Bela woodiana, 

Margarita varicosay Bela robtcsta, 

Turritella recticulata, Bela americana, 

Turritella erosa, Fusus tortuosus, 

Apoi^rhais occidentalis, Fusus labradorensis, 

Adviete viridula, Buccinum undttlatum, 
Tritonofusus cretaceus. 

From this list the polyzoa are excluded, since no spe- 
cies are recorded from Greenland, except by Otho Fa- 
bricius in the Fauna Gronlandica. 

Upon comparing this list with that of the species 
comprised in the present fauna of Labrador, we can ob- 
serve how similar are the two faunae, and how persistently 
the characters of the earlier of the two have survived the 
important changes this region has undergone since the 
glacial epoch. We have here the present Syrtensian* or 
Newfoundland Banks fauna in its purity, without the 
intermixture of the few southern forms that have subse- 
quently encroached upon its limits. We shall below 
show where it shaded almost imperceptibly into the 
Acadian fauna, its nearest southern neighbor ; but now 
we have to determine its most northern limits. 

Fortunately MoUer, in his " Index MoUuscorum 
Gronlandise," and Rink,f have noticed the few fossils 



* We have applied the term Syrtensian to the subarctic assemblage of marine 
animals characterizing the Banks of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, and the 
coast of Southern Labrador and of Newfoundland. It is a subdivision of the 
Arctic fauna, being in some respects intermediate between the Arctic and Bo- 
real faunae. 

f Udsigt over Nordgronlands Geognosi af H.. Rink. Viden. Selsk. Skrifter, 
Kjobenhavn, 1853, p. 96. The species were identified by Dr. O. A. L. Morch. 



QUATERNARY FOSSILS. 335 

which have occurred in the Quaternary clays of southern 
Greenland, a list of which is here given. 

Pecten islandicus, My a truncata, 

Leda muiuta, My a arenaria, 

Mytilus edulis, PanopcEa norvegica, 

Modiolaria discors, Saxicava arctica, 

Astarte semisulcata\uQdic\\, Tellina calcarea, 

Astarte corr^igata Brown, Tellina fragilis^ (^gronlan- 

CardiuTU (^ Aphrodite^ died), 

gronlandicuni, Natica clausa B. & S., 

Cardium islandicum, Littorina gronlandica, 

Cryptodon fiexuosus, Fusus despechis Linn, 

Cyrtodaria siliqua, Margarita glauca, 

Pusus gracilis Da Costa. 

By reference to the lists of fossil shells found in the 
clays of the New England and Labrador coasts it will be 
seen that during the Quaternary of the French and Scan- 
dinavian geologists, or post-pliocene period of Lyell, the 
distribution of marine animals was governed by the same 
laws as at the present day. In going southward from 
Labrador to New York the seas became warmer the more 
they came in contact with the heated waters of the Gulf 
Stream, whose influence was slightly exerted on the 
coast of New England during the glacial period. The 
climate of New England was not purely arctic, but 
rather sub-arctic, where now it is " boreal." While this 
period was characterized by the wide distribution of 
what are now purely arctic or circumpolar species, there 
were also intermingled boreal or Acadian forms. Thus 
the arctic Leda arctica, Pecten gronlandictis, Serripes 
gronlandtcns, Pandorina arenosa, and Fus2is tornatus 



336 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

were then widespread and most characteristic shells from 
Greenland to Portland, Maine. The Leda especially, 
abounding in every clay deposit, has now become wholly 
extinct south of Spitzbergen and the 70th parallel of 
latitude. 

An exceedingly small percentage, if any, of the species 
has become wholly extinct, the only instances occurring to 
us being the Beluga vermontanay about which there must 
be great doubt, since owing to the difficulty of distinguish- 
ing the fossil species of whales, it may be the common 
white whale and the new species of Fmsus {F. labra- 
dorensis), and, possibly, Bela robusta, described above. 

A considerable number have become extinct in the 
north temperate seas, owing to the great changes in the 
climatic conditions. A parallel case is shown in the 
southward migration and subsequent extinction in Eu- 
rope of the musk-ox, polar bear, lemming, and other 
quadrupeds now confined mostly within the limits of the 
arctic circle. 

During the glacial period, or that of the deposition of 
the glacial beds (Leda clay of Dawson), which are un- 
mistakably rewashed terminal moraines left during the 
incoming or coldest period of the Quaternary (when, 
we have every reason to believe, true glaciers of great 
extent eroded the present river systems as far south as 
New York, the southern limits of the ice having been 
indicated by Clarence King, Prof. G. F. Wright, and 
others), there was a greater uniformity than now of the 
climate ; but yet, as shown by the distribution of animal 
life, there was a decided change from a purely arctic to 
a sub-arctic climate, from Greenland southward. 

At present, the arctic or circumpolar fauna is restricted 



FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 337 

to a district north of the yearly isothermal line of 32°, 
which thus includes the Arctic-American Archipelago, 
northern Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, and 
the coast of Siberia. This is a true circtimpolar fauna, 
and can scarcely be said to be Asiatic, European, or 
American, though members of the group extend in di- 
minished numbers and size down on the Asiatic coast,, 
to Japan, as we are informed by Dr. W. Stimpson and 
by P. P. Carpenter in the Report of the British Associ- 
ation for 1856 ; on the European coast as far as the 
Mediterranean Sea, and on the eastern American coast 
as far as New Jersey, where the polar currents give, at 
great depths, the necessary amount of cold for their ex- 
istence. South of this circumpolar belt is a sub-arctic 
zone of life corresponding to the yearly isothermal of 
40°. This line starts from near Cape Breton in North 
America, and includes Iceland, the Hebrides, the Faroe 
Islands, Finmark, and northern Norway. On the 
American coast this fauna is characterized by a small 
number of species not yet recorded as found in the cir- 
cumpolar district, which only occur southward in the 
Acadian district in diminished numbers and impoverished 
in size. This Syrtensian fauna bears the same relations 
to that of the Acadian district as that of Finmark (judg- 
ing from the data furnished us in the papers of Professor 
Sars) does to that of the Baltic, North, and Scottish 
Seas, the boreal or Celtic fauna of Forbes, and which is 
the European representative of the Acadian fauna. We 
have shown* that this fauna is limited to Hudson's Bay, 
the coast of Labrador, and the northern coast of New- 

* Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, Dec, 1863. See also the Pr-oc. Bost. 
Soc. Nat. Hist., Jan. 1866, p. 276. 



338 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

foundland. Southward it follows the line of floating ice, 
which partially excludes Anticosti, but includes both the 
Grand Banks and those shoals lying to the southwest- 
ward along the track of the polar current, which on the 
coast of New England flows between the coast and the 
inner edge of the Gulf Stream ; along this line lie the 
Banks, off Nova Scotia, and Maine, and Massachusetts, 
together with the St. George's Banks and the Nantucket 
Shoals. Its influence is likewise felt as far south as the 
shoals lying off the coast of New Jersey. This current 
would even seem to impinge slightly upon the north 
side of Cape Hatteras, where Redfield supposes its final 
influence to have been felt. Returning again to the 
shores of the British colonies, we find this Shoal or 
Syrtensian fauna most curiously interwedged with the 
Acadian or New England fauna. This is owing, with- 
out doubt, to the overlapping of the Gulf Stream upon 
the great polar current. Thus, while the mouth of the 
Bay of Fundy is properly a Syrtensian outlier, the head 
of the bay, the coast of New Brunswick, the western 
side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the mouth of the river 
St. Lawrence on its southern side, and a small isolated 
area on the southern coast of Newfoundland, sheltered 
from the polar current sweeping by Cape Race, and on 
which a small branch of the Gulf Stream may possibly 
impinge, are outlying areas inhabited by species most 
characteristic of the coast of New England north of 
Cape Cod, constituting a fauna termed by Professor 
Dana the Nova Scotian Fauna, and by Llltken, the Aca- 
dian Fauna. Thus between Greenland and Cape Cod 
there are two distinct faunae : the Acadian, with outliers 
situated north of 'its normal limits, due to the influence 



FAUNA OF THE BANKS. 339 

of the Gulf Stream, or, perhaps, to the absence of the 
polar current ; and the Arctic (Syrtensian or Labrador 
fauna), peopling the coast of Labrador and Newfound- 
land, sending outliers far southwards, due to the influ- 
ence of the polar current. 

Having shown how these three faunae are limited at 
the present day, it remains to notice how this distribu- 
tion differed in Quaternary times. The arctic or polar 
current must have sent a branch through the present 
course of the St. Lawrence River into Lake Champlain, 
in a general southwestern direction. This current was 
evidently a continuation of the present Belle Isle cur- 
rent, which even now pushes the cold waters of the 
Strait far up beyond the island of Anticosti beneath the 
fresh waters of the St. Lawrence River. It has been 
noticed by Dr. Dawson, f who has satisfactorily shown 
the effects of this powerful St. Lawrence current, that 
the post-tertiary fauna of the St. Lawrence, as it has 
been studied by him at Montreal, Riviere du Loup, and 
Quebec, was in all its features purely Syrtensian, and 
identical with that of the colder portions of the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, and especially the coast of Labrador. 

The clay beds of Canada synchronize and agree in 
their general features very nearly with those of Maine, 
as has been already observed by Dr. Dawson. All the 
beds to the eastward of the Saco River afford a Labra- 
dor fauna. About Portland and on the Saco River we 
are, however, on the limits of the post-tertiary Acadian 



■f- Address of Principal Dawson before the Natural History Society of Mon- 
treal, May, 1864, published in the Canadian Naturalist, where he shows that the 
general southwest striation of the valley was "from the ocean toward the inte- 
rior against the slope of the St. Lawrence valley." (p. 9.) 



340 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

fauna. Certain common Syrtensian and purely arctic 
forms there dwindle in size and diminish very sensibly in 
numbers, and a few arctic species are replaced by Aca- 
dian forms. 

At Point Shirley we have good evidence of the begin- 
ning of the Virginian fauna, where Venus mercenaria 
and Buccimtm plicosum abound. This must have been 
the northern limits of the fauna so well developed, as 
noticed by Desor, in the beds of Nantucket, where the 
temperature of the sea could have scarcely differed from 
that of the present period. The same may be said of 
the post-tertiary fauna of South Carolina, and, from 
what little we know, of that of Florida, where the heated 
Gulf Stream evidently preserved the same conditions as 
now, only more checked in its northern limits than at 
present by impinging more directly on a coast lined with 
floating ice, as that of Maine must have been in post- 
tertiary times. 

At such a time the increased degree of moisture must 
have produced a much greater rainfall, the fogs must have 
been of greater extent, and the snow line must have ap- 
proached much nearer the sea, than at present, on the 
eastern coast of America, south of lat. 60°, and glaciers 
of great extent must have surrounded the mountains of 
New England. The land fauna and flora of New Eng- 
land must have been that of Labrador. The Greenland 
seal {Phoca \Pagophihis^ grcenlandud), the Beluga ver- 
montana, and among plants the Potentilla tridentata 
and Arenaria groenlandica (both of which are now 
found in the colder parts of the coast of Maine) must 
have been the characteristic species. Remnants of such 
a flora and fauna we now behold on our alpine summits. 



OUR ALPINE REMNANTS OF THE LABRADOR FAUNA. 34I 

On the top of Mount Washington, the last five hundred 
feet exhibit a purely sub-arctic or Labrador vegetation. 
We can scarcely call it arctic, for the dwarf spruces and 
firs are of the same size as in the more unprotected places 
in Labrador. The same species of weasel which abounds 
in Labrador we have seen on the summit of Mount 
Washington. The insect fauna we must believe is an 
outlier of the Labrador sub-arctic assemblage of insects, 
though with certain features of its own. While some 
Diptera, Coleoptera, and Lepidoptera are identical, cer- 
tain species, such as Chionobas seinidea, Argynnis mon- 
ti7ttis Scudder, differ slightly from any yet found in Lab- 
rador, though they may yet be found farther north, or 
may prove to be local species, remnants of a sub-arctic 
fauna which peopled the surface of New England, living 
between the coast and the snow line in the interior. As 
the line of perpetual snow retreated up the mountain 
sides, the more hardy species followed, while many 
others doubtless died in the great changes of climate and 
topography which ushered in the historic period. As 
there are aerial or alpine outliers, relics of this ancient 
sub-arctic fauna and flora, so we must consider the pres- 
ent abyssal forms, and outliers of the Labrador marine 
fauna, — such as inhabited the Banks of Nova Scotia and 
northern New" England, and the cold waters of the 
mouth of the Bay of Fundy, — as the remnants of the 
Syrtensian fauna, which during the glacial period must 
have been spread very uniforml)' over this area. 

The arctic sea-birds even now breed upon the islands 
in the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, as they do on the 
coast of Labrador. I am told by fishermen that the 
Puffin, Mormon arctzca, used to breed on Mount Desert. 



342 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

The Alca impennis was probably a common bird, as it 
was once on the shores of Scandinavia and Scotland ; 
there are rumors extant among our oldest fishermen of 
its having been seen years ago, but within the recollec- 
tion of men now living, as I am informed by Professor 
A. E. Verrill ; and its bones have occurred in the kitch- 
en-middings of the coast of Nova Scotia and of Massa- 
chusetts at Ipswich, It is known by Rev. Mr. Wilson, 
a missionary in Newfoundland, to have been common 
less than forty years ago about the Fogo Islands, on the 
northeastern shore of Newfoundland, as I have been in- 
formed by Mr. G. A. Boardman of Calais, Maine. 
These birds represent the sub-arctic avi-fauna of New 
England during the later period of the drift, and owe 
their extinction possibly to the slow changes of the 
climate, which must have been gradually ameliorating for 
two centuries past in the north temperate zone, but 
more especially to their destruction by man. 

All the facts cited above must at least tend to disprove 
any theory of a former tertiary or post-tertiary continental 
connection between Europe and America. The fauna 
and flora of Labrador during the glacial period were too 
distinct, the oceanic currents could not have allowed 
any interchange of forms, and the great depth of the sea 
in Baffin's Bay would have prevented such migrations as 
Forbes supposed to have taken place from Europe. 

The geological history of the American continent, as 
laid down so clearly by Professor Dana in the Proceed- 
ings of the American Association for the Advancement 
of Science for 1856, proves that the different formations 
were, during paleozoic, mesozoic, and tertiary times, 
built around the granitic laurentian nucleus of British 



THE AMERICAN GLACIAL FAUNA UNLIKE THE EUROPEAN. 343 

America, and gradually proceeded southward. All the 
tertiary rocks form narrow strips of land along the coast. 
No well-informed geologist can believe that the tertiary 
strata formed continuous sea-bottoms, — that, for instance, 
the miocene beds of Spitzbergen were continuous with 
those of Disco Island in Greenland, or that the Green- 
land beds are a part of the miocene strata of the Southern 
States. Equally unfounded on general geological prin- 
ciples seems the theory of a tertiary Atlantis, advanced 
some years ago, especially by Heer and others, though 
first proposed by Forbes, to account for the distribution 
of life in the Azores and the islands lying off the mouth 
of the Mediterranean Sea. In fact, the fauna as we go 
southward from the arctic zone becomes more and more 
distinct, audit is probable that such distinctions obtained 
from the earliest palaeozoic times. The Silurian fauna 
of Europe is nearly as distinct from that of North 
America as the tertiary fauna of England and France is 
from that of Virginia, as in the latter ease insisted on by 
Sir Charles Lyell in the Quarterly Journal of the Geo- 
logical Society for 1845. 

During glacial times, the cave-bear, lion, hyena, an 
aurochs were associated in Europe with the musk-ox 
reindeer, and polar bear. It cannot be said that th 
glacial fauna of America was derived by immigration 
from Europe, for not a single feature peculiarly Euro- 
pean in its type is found in our post-tertiary beds. On 
the other hand, the glacial fauna of northern Europe 
was essentially Arctic-European or " palaearctic." Be- 
cause the musk-ox is found fossil in the turbaries of 
France and gravels of Germany, it need not be inferred 
that the European fauna of that period borrowed an 



344 '^^HE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

American feature. We would rather suppose that the 
former range of the musk-ox, a circumpolar species, was 
Arctic-European as well as American. In considering the 
origin of the flora of Labrador, though not possessing a 
special knowledge of the botany, we would on general 
principles venture to dissent from the view of Dr. 
Hooker, that the flora of northeastern Arctic America 
is essentially Scandinavian in its origin. 

The flora of Labrador, so far as we were enabled to 
observe, follows closely the laws of distribution of the 
land and sea animals ; and any theory that separates the 
origin of the two assemblages cannot be in accordance 
with the general laws of the distribution of life, be it 
plant or animal, over the surface of the globe. The 
fauna of Australasia is no less peculiar than its flora ; 
the flora of Brazil is characterized by its peculiar tropical 
American forms, just as the fauna is circumscribed by 
pecuHar features. So we must believe that the origin of 
the Arctic- European and Arctic- American and Arctic- 
Asiatic floras and faunas was distinct from the outset, and 
that they have never borrowed, by extensive inter-conti- 
nental migrations, each other's peculiar characteristics. 
As we have observed in regard to the animals, there are 
a very large proportion of arctic plants spread over the 
whole arctic zone, which cannot be said to be American 
any more than European or Asiatic, but simply circum- 
polar. On the other hand, there is a small percentage of 
which the reverse is true, and this is paralleled among the 
animals. 

Sir J. D. Hooker, in his elaborate essay on the Dis- 
tribution of Arctic Plants in the Linnean Transactions 
for 1 86 1, accounts for the greater richness of the flora of 



DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 345 

Lapland over that of other arctic regions by the blend- 
ing of warm and cold currents of air and water, and its 
great diversity of mountains and lowlands ; while on the 
broad plains of Siberia and the level plateau of Labrador 
there is the greatest uniformity of climate, and hence a 
corresponding paucity of plants. 

The same climatic conditions determine the distribu- 
tion of marine life. As we go from Norway to Green- 
land the number of species lessens greatly. Dr. Llitken, 
in his admirable View of the Echinoderms of Green- 
land, shows that the fauna is essentially Arctic-American 
rather than European. It is so with the other radiates, 
and the articulate and molluscan fauna, and the fish 
fauna would seem to follow the same law. 

Dr. Hooker cites fifty-seven species of plants which 
do not cross from Greenland to America. This is par- 
alleled by the apparent restriction of a few species of 
marine invertebrates to the high polar seas, such as the 
Leda truncata and Pecte7t grcEulandictiSy \k\o\x^\x\ ^2.- 
cial times they abounded in northeastern America. 

Among the most purely Arctic-American plants are 
the Potentilla tridentata, which is abundant in Green- 
land and which we have collected in profusion in Lab- 
rador, Maine, and on the White Mountains ; also the 
Areiiaria grcenlandica, which is more thoroughly arctic, 
preferring the coldest spots on the outer islands of the 
coast of Labrador, and the alpine summit of Mount 
Washington, and which has even been detected on Cape 
Elizabeth, Me. 

These two plants— which Dr. Hooker acknowledges 
have never occurred elsewhere on the globe within the 
historic period — he supposes were originally from Scan- 



346 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

dinavia, though they have never been found in Europe. 
By this mode of reasoning we might just as well imagine 
the clam, Mya arenaria, to have been derived originally 
from Europe, or the bison to have been derived from 
the aurochs of Europe, The presence of such charac- 
teristic Arctic-American forms in Greenland must de- 
stroy our confidence in the supposed identity of the 
Greenland flora with that of Lapland, for there are 
strong grounds for regarding the flora of Greenland as 
arctic and circumpolar simply, rather than European- 
Arctic, and that on either side the flora becomes more 
strongly either American or European, as we go west- 
ward or eastward of Greenland.* 

When, following the line of the yearly isothermal of 
32°, we go to the southward on either side of the At- 
lantic, we find warm and cold currents of air and water 
intermingling, and thus producing much greater diver- 
sity of climate than in Greenland. While the Gulf 
Stream abuts directly upon Scandinavia, some of its 
effects are felt in Newfoundland and Labrador. Both 
lands are continental, and shade into temperate regions. 
There is a very perfect correspondence in the geology 
and distribution of the formations, and hence, as Hooker 
observes, there are a large number (230) of plants, 
common to Labrador and Scandinavia, which do not 
occur in Greenland. This is parallelled very exactly in 
the distribution of animal life. In the seas of Labrador 
and Newfoundland are found forms derived from the 
more temperate seas of New England, as on the coast of 



* In a paper by Eug. Warming in Engler's Jahrbiicher, x. i88g, on the flora 
of Greenland, the author concludes that Greenland is not a European province 
but has nearer relations to America. {Nature, May 30, i88g. p. 117.) 



DISTRIBUTION OF ARCTIC PLANTS. 347 

Norway many forms occur which are derived from the 
British seas, and are even found as far south as the 
Mediterranean. These serve greatly to swell the lists. 
In fact the facies of the flora of Labrador is sub-arctic 
and by no means purely arctic, as is that of Greenland. 
Explained in this way the flora of Greenland seems to 
us no more anomalous than its colder climate and re- 
moteness from sub-arctic lands, isolated as it ever has 
been by deep seas and powerful oceanic currents of dif- 
ferent temperatures, which, we must believe, served 
from very early times as barriers against the comming- 
ling of more temperate forms of life with purely circum- 
polar species. 

There is, in our view, no reason to believe that the 
glacial period, as some writers have suggested, has 
shifted from the eastern to the western hemisphere, or 
vice versa ; for the same causes which brought on the 
cold period were evidently common to the arctic and 
sub-arctic regions throughout their whole extent, though 
governed greatly by the present distribution of the iso- 
thermal lines. That the drift deposits were laid down 
contemporaneously on both sides of the Atlantic, seems 
proved by such facts as this : that Leda arctica {L. port- 
landicct), more than any other shell characteristic of the 
drift deposits of the northern portions of America and 
Europe, has become alike extinct both in Scandinavia 
and its equivalent, Labrador, Canada, and New Eng- 
land. 

The break in the glacial beds — which by Sars^ (in 
which he closely follows D'Archiac) are divided into an 

* Om de i Norge forekommende fossile Dyrelevninger fra Quartaerperioden, 
etc.; af M. Sars, Christiania, 1S65. 



348 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

earlier Quaternary or '' glaciar' formation, from wliich 
few fossils have been taken, and those purely arctic in 
character, and the more recent beds, " post-glacial," 
resting upon them, containing a great influx of boreal or 
sub-arctic and some Lusitanico-Mediterranean species — 
does not seem so distinctly marked in northeastern 
America as in Europe. In southern England the able 
researches of Mr. Searles V. Wood, Jun., enable this 
writer to " arrive at the conclusion that the widespread 
bowlder clay of England is wholly distinct from the 
older, but partially developed drift of the Cromer coast. 
That conclusion was arrived at by the minute examina- 
tion of more than eight thousand square miles of the 
eastern portion of England, and the grounds for it were 
submitted to geologists in a detailed map of the drift 
beds over the whole of that area, with copious sections. 
It was thus that I acquired the opinion which induces 
me to deny, as I do, ' that we have yet any evidence of 
any general submergence at the incoming of the glacial 
period, far less of repeated oscillations of submergence 
and emergence.' . . . Now although I have endeavored 
to show that on the east coast of England four oscilla- 
tions of climate have occurred since the incidence of the 
glacial period, viz. : first, the extreme cold of the Cromer 
drift when the country except a part of Norfolk was 
land ; second, the ameliorated climate of the sand and 
gravel series, which overlies that drift unconformably, 
and partially underlies the bowlder clay ; third, the re- 
turn of cold with the extensive submergence which in- 
troduced the widespread formation of bowlder clay ; 
and fourth, the return to sand and gravel conditions, 
with the elevation and denudation of that clay and the 



THE BOWLDER CLAY. 349 

introduction of the post-glacial series — yet the oscilla- 
tions of climate during the tertiary period begin as well 
as end with these." — The Reader, London, 1865, p. 466. 

Having the grand outlines of this formation thus 
mapped out for us, it remains for geologists in this coun- 
try to see how far the parallel can be carried out in 
America. There is as yet everything to be learned of 
the lowest and oldest bowlder clay of the coast of Maine ; 
to ascertain how far it is conformable with the brickyard 
clays of the uplands, and whether there is an overlying 
bed of sand such as the sheets of sand resting every- 
where on the upper bowlder clay. At present there 
have been revealed no signs of this lower bed of sand 
clay, and the lowest clay beds we are acquainted with 
seem to graduate into the rewashed, more inland, and 
more recent bowlder or brickyard clays. 

In adopting the term Qtcaternary Period, we would 
use it in the amended sense proposed by D'Archiac in 
1848, in his " Histoire des Progres-de la Geologic." 
From his able review of all the prime characteristics so 
trenchantly dividing this period from the Pliocene Ter- 
tiary, we are led with that author to consider this period 
as rather equivalent to the Tertiary as a whole, than to 
either of its three subdivisions ; and rather as the begin- 
ning of a new epoch or period, than the close of the 
Tertiary. The distinctions, as shown by D'Archiac, ob- 
tain no less in the tropics than in the high latitudes. In 
tropical America the period is marked off from the Ter- 
tiary by the appearance of the great mammals, the Her- 
bivores characterizing the formation in America, and the 
great Carnivores the deposit of the Eastern hemisphere. 
About the Mediterranean the Tertiarv Period closed 



3SO THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

with the upheaval or the Sub-Apennines of Italy, or Alps 
of Valais. 

Professor Dana, in his " Manual of Geology," states 
further important distinctions, such as the rise of land in 
the high latitudes which had not before taken place since 
Palaeozoic times, ushering in the period of great glaciers, 
and thus serving, over one half of the surface of the 
globe, to further separate this epoch from the Tertiary. 

Another feature of this period is the great uniformity 
of climate over broad, continental areas, and the wide 
distribution in space of certain species most characteristic 
of the Quaternary Formation, Such are the occurrence, 
on both hemispheres, of the musk-ox, the Siberian mam- 
moth (^E. primigenius), and, among marine mollusca, of 
Leda arctica Gray, Sars (^portlandica), which is now re- 
stricted to the circumpolar seas. 

Ge7teral Conclusions. — To account for all the facts 
which have been developed above, we must assume, — 

I. That the northern portion of North America, that 
is, the boreal and arctic regions, stood at a much higher 
level above the sea than now. We have given good 
evidence that it stood at least three hundred and sixty 
feet above that level in Labrador. It would be safe to 
assume that the coast line stood at an elevation not fall- 
ing short of six hundred feet. While this increase in the 
height of the land would not materially change the 
physiognomy of the continent north of the St. Lawrence 
River and Gulf, where the tableland rises abruptly from 
the ocean as in the arctic regions ; it would effect a 
great alteration in the distribution of dry land south of 
the parallel of 50° N. Should all the preseilt sea-bottom 
lying within the limits of the depth of one hundred 



THE LED A CLAY. 35 1 

fathoms be thus raised, the Gulf of St. Lawrence would 
be represented by a river delta, one mouth in the Straits 
of Belle Isle, the other flowing out between Cape Bre- 
ton and Cape Ray. All the submarine plateaux, such 
as the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, and the banks ly- 
ing off the coast of Nova Scotia, Maine, and Cape Cod, 
would be elevated above the sea, and probably form 
broad plains. Thus the effects on the distribution of 
life would essentially differ from those of the region 
north of 50° N. Such a rise and enlarged area of land 
would, as has been stated by physicists, produce an ex- 
tension southward of an extreme arctic temperature. 
While the climate would be greatly low*ered, we still 
have added the proximity of the Gulf Stream, as evi- 
denced by the temperate rather than arctic fauna of the 
glacial beds of New York and Nantucket, and the more 
tropical assemblage of South Carolina. Such a blending 
of hot and cold currents of air and water must have pro- 
duced even more fogs and a much greater rainfall than 
now, to feed the enormous glaciers which moved into the 
sea from off the principal water-sheds. 

II. Leda Clay. — There was a gradual change of level 
in the sea. At the close of the glacial period the snow 
line gradually receded from the coast, and the glaciers 
retreated to the mountains. During the slow and gen- 
tle submergence of the land ushering in this epoch, the 
crude moraine matter was sorted into beds of regularly 
stratified clays one hundred to three hundred feet in 
thickness. The lowest beds consequently are the most 
ancient, as is also evidenced by the greater prevalence of 
arctic forms. During this time the sea was filled with 
floating ice, as at present on the Labrador coast, and the 



352 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

great polar or Labrador current exerted its full power. 
The temperature being so even throughout the northern 
hemispheres of the globe, there was a great uniformity 
in the distribution of life, and certain species enjoyed a 
wide distribution where now they are restricted to com- 
paratively narrow areas. Toward the close of this period 
the Greenland seal, the walrus, and the Vermont whale 
{Behiga Vermontana), flourished. The Age of great 
Mammals dated from this early period. An arctic fauna 
and flora inhabited the coast between the sea and the 
low snow line, and the flora and fauna which are now 
found only on our alpine heights, or in cold, isolated 
spots on the coast of Maine and the northern lakes, then 
peopled the surface of New England and Canada. All 
the biological features of this epoch partook of an inter- 
mixture of the boreal and arctic faunas and floras that 
are now more distinctly circumscribed into narrower 
areas. ,' 

We^ have no evidence of an intercontinental commu- 
nication with Europe during this period. Then, as now, 
there was a local facies imprinted on those animals 
whose remains have survived, exhibiting the same faunal 
distinctions, and even more strongly marked than now. 

The close of this period was signalized by a great 
amelioration of climate, by broad areas of marine clays 
finely laminated, and having more sand and loam inter- 
mixed than in the lowest and oldest beds. This was the 
transition from a period of broad estuaries, and, at a late 
stage, of shallow seas, to the next epoch of a secular 
emergence. It ushered in the — 

III. Period of raised Beaches (Saxicava Sands). This 
necessarily implies a great denudation of the glacial clays 



THE TERRACE EPOCH. 353 

The rolled, sea-worn bowlders, shingle and sand, com- 
posing the mass of the ancient osars and beach deposits, 
now found at all heights from the sea-level to those of 
five hundred or six hundred feet, are derived from the 
resorting of the moraines. We thus find that the high- 
est beaches are the oldest, and the most recent, those 
just above the ocean level. The temperature of the sea 
did not differ greatly from that of the present day. Dur- 
ing the epoch the present distribution of the faunae now 
inhabiting the temperate and arctic zones was estab- 
lished, and since then but little change has taken place. 
The fresh-water shells found about the Niagara River 
and other deposits in Canada, were, so far as we know, 
introduced at this time. Those shells found in beach 
deposits on the St. Lawrence River, from four hundred 
to five hundred feet above the present level of the river, 
show that but lij:tle change has taken place in the climatic 
relations of the land or in the distribution of the animals 
depending on such relations. It is .evident that the 
Acadian fauna, once restricted to the regions south of 
the Saco River, during this epoch crept up the coast of 
Maine, extended itself along the western shores of the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence, and prevailed in the St. Lawrence 
River, and the broad estuary now represented by Lake 
Champlain. 

The close of this period witnessed the surface of New 
England covered by broad lakes and ponds, with vast 
rivers and extensive estuaries, with deep fiords cutting 
up the coast-line. Its scenic features must have resem- 
bled those of Labrador at the present day. 

IV. The Terrace Epoch. The estuaries and deep 
bays left beach deposits of sand and shingle, resulting 



354 THE GEOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

from the drainage of the slowly rising continent. All 
the terraces are unconformable to the marine sands 
underlying them, though the highest terraces farthest 
from the coast may have been forming while the more 
recent sea-beaches were being deposited by the action of 
the waves and tide. Thus the early part of the Lake 
period is synchronous with the latter part of the Beach 
period. So also the lower strata of the Leda clays were 
laid down during the deposition of the oldest beaches, 
causing a constant inosculation of these unconformable 
deposits, and thus the beginning of one epoch overlaps 
the close ofjthe previous one. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

While the zoology of the interior and western por- 
tions of the Labrador peninsula is undoubtedly like that 
of the Hudson's Bay district and the cooler portions of 
Canada, as well as northern Maine and New Hampshire, 
it presents quite different features on the treeless por- 
tions of the coast, and on the outer islands. There, the 
fauna, as a whole, is closely allied to that of southern 
Greenland, and is remarkably free from the " boreal " 
forms ranging throughout British America. Indeed 
the insects and moUusks are in many cases identical with 
those of Greenland, as are the climatic,"^ topographic, 
and general geological features of the coast. Did the 
mountains of Labrador rise above the snow line, where 
now they just reach its lower limits, and were the rain 
fall slightly greater, glaciers would undoubtedly exist, 
running down the fiords into the sea, as they do north of 
Hudson's Strait, and we should perhaps have a nearly 
perfect correspondence between the Atlantic slope of 
northern Labrador and that portion of Greenland lying 
between the 6oth and 70th parallels of latitude. 

On the outer islands, lining the coast for nearly forty 
or fifty miles deep, in the vicinity of Hopedale, the birds, 

* The mean annual temperature of Hopedale in lat. 55° 35' "is certainly not 
higher than 26° Fahr." Ball's Notes of a Naturalist in South America, p. 273. 

355 



356 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

insects, land shells and the vegetation, present an almost 
purely circumpolar character. Thus certain butterflies 
and moths first discovered in high latitutes are very 
abundant about Hopedale and southward, also occuring 
on the alpine summits of the White mountains and of 
the Rocky mountains, and certain of them even fre- 
quenting the Alps of Switzerland, the mountains of 
Scandinavia and the summits of the Altai mountains in 
northeastern Asia. 

It is this mingled circumpolar and boreal fauna which 
composed that assemblage of life-forms, which peopled 
New England and the extreme northern states, as well as 
Canada, during the glacial period, and which as the ice 
waned, migrating northward, was gradually driven to- 
wards the north pole, though still lingering on the alpine 
summits, and on the treeless barrens of Labrador, These 
bleak, bare tracts, including many thousand square miles 
of islands lining the Labrador coast, agree in their vege- 
tation and animal life with similar tracts and islands in 
latitudes 70° to 80° N. This is due to the cold Labra- 
dor current, and to the immense fields of floating ice,, 
nearly filling up the channels and friths between these 
islands throughout the entire short summer of six weeks, 
thus greatly reducing the temperature, while in Novem- 
ber the bays and inlets freeze up solid until the following 

'Indeed the Labrador peninsula with its varied physi- 
cal features affords admirable examples of the influence 
of the environment on animal and plant life. The com- 
plete harmony which exists between the organisms, both 
terrestrial and marine, and their surroundings, is evidently 
the result of their adaption to the arctic or the subarctic 



THE WHITE BEAR. 357 

nature of their habitats. The peninsula stands out in the 
Atlantic ocean, bounded on the north by the polar sea 
and lands, with their floating ice, glaciers, and frozen 
soil. Past the Atlantic shores of the peninsula sweeps the 
broad, deep, and powerful Labrador or polar current, bear- 
ing on its surface through the spring and summer months, 
and about Hudson's Strait, in certain years, throughout 
the autumn, a mass of floating ice about 100,000 square 
miles in extent. Hence the mean annual temperature 
is, on the coast, especially on the promontories and 
islands, as low as that of southern Greenland. 

In my first published remarks on the occurrence of 
the white bear in Labrador, where it is sometimes called 
the "water bear," in distinction from the black bear, 
which is very common on that coast, I then supposed 
that the polar bear was a straggler from Hudson's or 
Baffin's bays, rather by accident than otherwise, at rare in- 
tervals breeding so far south as Labrador. But on look- 
ing over the accounts of the early discoverers and navi- 
gators, as well as Cartwright's "Journal," I am led to 
materially alter my opinion and to suppose that the for- 
mer limits of this creature extended even possibly as far 
south as Casco bay, on the coast of Maine. 

Whether there are any notices of or references to the 
white bear in the records and sagas of the Norsemen 
who visited the coast of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, 
we are unable to say. White bears were, however, seen 
by the first English navigator who discovered our shores, 
the intrepid Venetian, John Cabot, then sailing under 
an English flag. The following reference to white bears 
appears in an extract from an inscription on the map of 
Sebastian Cabot in Hakluyt's Voyages (iii. 27) : 



358 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

" In the yeere of our Lord 1497 lohn Cabot, a Vene- 
tian, and his sonne Sebastian (with an English fleet set 
out from Bristoll) discouered that which no man before 
that time had attempted, on the 24th of lune, about five 
of the clock early in the morning. This land he called 
Prima vista, that is to say, First scene, because as I sup- 
pose it was that point whereof they had the first sight 
from sea. That Island which lieth out before the land, 
he called the island of S. lohn vpon this occasion, as 1 
thinke, because it was discouered vpon the day of lohn 
the Baptist. The inhabitants of this Island vse to weare 
beast skinnes, and have them in as great estimation as 
we have our finest garments. In their warres they vse 
bowes, arrowes, pikes, darts, wooden clubs and slings. 
The soil is barren in some places, andyieldeth litle fruit, 
but it is full of white beares, and stagges far greater than 
ours," 

This account shows quite conclusively that John 
Cabot's Prima Vista was some point of land in eastern or 
northern Newfoundland. The eminent geographer, Dr, 
J. G. Kohl, in his History of the Discovery of Maine, 
seems fully persuaded that the landfall of John Cabot 
was Labrador. But if the inscription and map are gen- 
uine, the description of the inhabitants of the island, both 
men and beasts, would better apply to those of the east- 
ern or southern Newfoundland. The human beings 
were more probably red Indians than Eskimo. On the 
Labrador coast the soil is "barren" in all places, while 
the " stagges far greater than ours" may have been the 
moose, which does not inhabit the Labrador coast. 
Whether the "white beares" were the polar bears or a pale 
variety of the barren-ground bear of Sir John Richard- 



THE WHITE BEAR. 359 

son is somewhat uncertain. We should have unhesitat- 
ingly referred the creature to the polar bear, were it not 
that in Parmenius' account of Newfoundland, published 
in 1583, it is said : " Bears also appear about the fishers' 
stages of the countrey, and are sometimes killed, but they 
seeme to be white, as I coniectured by their skinnes, 
and somewhat lesse then ours." (Hakluyt.) 

The next explorer of this coast was Cortereal who, in 
1500, landed on the Newfoundland coast, at or probably 
near Cape Race. In an old Portuguese map of about 
the year 1520 is a long Latin inscription, thus translated 
by Kohl, a part of which we copy : " This country was 
first discovered by Caspar Cortereal, a Portuguese, and 
he brought from there wild and barbarous men and white 
bears. There are to be found in it plenty of animals, 
birds and fish." The land from which Cortereal broup-ht 
the white bears was evidently the same as that in which 
he kidnapped fifty-seven of the aborigines. These were 
Indians and not Eskimo, and must have been the inhabi- 
tants either of Newfoundland or of Nova Scotia, for a per- 
son who saw them in the streets of Lisbon described them 
" as tall, well-built, and admirably fit for labor." That, 
however, they were the aborigines of Newfoundland, 
perhaps Bethuks, seems proved by the fact that a num- 
ber of white bears were also captured and sent to Spain 
with them. From these facts it seems reasonable to infer 
that the white or polar bear was a resident on the eastern 
coast of Newfoundland. 

The next navigator to explore these seas was Jacques 
Cartier, who arrived May loth, 1534, on the eastern 
coast of Newfoundland. To this observing seaman we 
owe our first accounts of the great auk or " penguin" on 



360 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

the Island of Birds, now Funk or Fogo Island, on the 
northeastern coast of Newfoundland ; also of the Bird 
rocks of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

While harboring at what is now Funk Island, Cartier, 
after describing the great auks, tells us that he saw a 
white bear. In his own language, done into quaint 
English by Hakluyt : " And albeit the sayd Island be 
14 leagues from the maineland, notwithstanding beares 
come swimming thither to eat of the sayd birds : and 
our men found one there as great as any cow, and as 
white as any swan, who in their presence leapt into the 
sea, and upon Whitsun-monday (following our voyage 
towards the land) we met her by the way, swimming 
toward land as swiftly as we could saile. So soone as 
we saw her, we pursued her with our boats, and by maine 
strength tooke her, whose flesh was as goode to be eaten 
as the flesh of a calfe two yeres olde." 

From this graphic and circumstantial account we feel 
sure that this was the great white or polar bear {U^^sms 
maritiinus) ; that it reached its full size, was not uncom- 
mon on the mainland (John Cabot says the land was 
" fufl" of them), and that it bred there, as those men- 
tioned by Parmenius in 1583 were probably young ones. 

The white bear is still occasionally seen on this coast, 
as Rev. Mr. Harvey states :"^ "The seal hunters occasion- 
ally encounter the white or polar bear on the ice off the 
coast, and sometimes it has been known to land." 

Now, if in these early times of Cabot and Cartier the 
eastern coast of Newfoundland was the habitat and 
breeding place of the polar bear, it is not unlikely that 

* Hatton and Harvey's Newfoundland, Boston, 1883, p. 193. 



THE WHITE BEAR. 361 

it occasionally might have visited, as we know the walrus 
did, the coast of Nova Scotia and of Maine. 

Our supposition is based on the following facts : In an 
ancient map of " New France," by the Italian Jacomo 
di Gastaldi, in about the year 1550, republished by Kohl, 
and which we present, though of reduced size, what we 
should consider as veritable white bears are depicted as 
swimming in the ocean far from the coast of what must 
have been Nova Scotia, and near to but west of Sable 
Island or " Isola della rena," In the map the bears are 
placed to the southward of "Terra de Nvrvmbega," 
which evidently comprised Nova Scotia and Eastern 
Maine. Sable Island is an enlarged portion of a broad 
band, intended to represent the banks of Newfoundland 
and La Have. 

That the animals represented are bears admits of little 
doubt ; of the four figures the lowermost one is a seal ; it 
is drawn without ears, while the three other figures have 
large, drooping ears, like those of a bear. At any rate, 
if the locality was put in at haphazard by the map-drawer, 
why should white bears be also represented, as they seem 
to be in the ocean off Isola de Demoni. The figures of 
the black bear, as w^ell as of the rabbit and of the abo- 
rigines were all drawn, and it seems not unreasonable to 
infer that white bears were actually seen and reported to 
the south and west of Newfoundland. 

That the white bear may have visited the coast of 
Maine, near Portland, is further proved by the probable 
discovery by Prof. E. S. Morse of a white bear's tooth 
in the shell heaps of Casco Bay. 

Speaking of the bones of the bears found in a shell 
heap on Goose Island, Casco Bay, Maine, the late Pro- 



362 



THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST 



fessor Wyman remarked in the American Naturalist, 
1.575. January, 1868 : 

"The bones of the bear though much less numerous, 
were similarly broken up, and in two instances had been 
carbonized by contact with the fire. Among the speci- 
mens collected by Mr. Morse in his first visit to Crouch's 




PARTE INCOGNITA 



New France by tl)e Italian 3acomo di Gaflaldi in about tl?c ygur 1.^.^0 



cove was the last molar from the lower jaw. The crown 
was somewhat worn, but the ridges were not all effaced ; 
it was of small size, measuring 0.55 inch in length and 
and 0.46 in breadth. The average size of eight speci- 
mens of the same molar in the black bear was : Length, 
0.60 inch ; breadth, 0.47, while that of two specimens 
from the polar bear was, length, 0.54 inch ; breadth^ 
0.45. The tooth from the shell heaps, therefore, as re- 



THE WHITE BEAR. 363 

gards size, more closely resembles the last-mentioned 
species, as it does also in the shape of the crown — but it 
must be unsafe from a single specimen of the molar in 
question to attempt to identify them. The former exist- 
ence of the polar bear on the coast of Maine is rendered 
quite probable by the fact that the tusk of a walrus has 
actually been found at Gardiner." 

That the white bear formerly was an inhabitant of 
Newfoundland seems probable from the facts we have 
brought together, and it is to be hoped that the antiqua- 
rians and naturalists of Newfoundland will investigate 
the shell heaps, should such be found, of that island for 
further facts bearing on this subject. 

We will now turn our attention to the former presence 
of the white bear on the Labrador coast, where the set- 
tlers still call it the "water bear." We find only in Cart- 
wright's Journal reference to this creature, but th-is is suf- 
ficient to show that it bred on and permanently inhabited 
this coast from Belle Isle, or Chateau -Bay, northward. 
A white bear was killed in 1 769 at Pitt's harbor, Chateau 
Bay. There is a " White Bear Sound" on Cartwright's 
map just north of Cape Charles, near Battle Island. 
Cartwright's house was to the northward of Cape Charles^ 
in an arm of Sandwich Bay. In 1770 Cartwright saw 
the track of two large white bears, and the Eskimo killed 
one the same year near his house. In April, 1772, the 
tracks of three white bears were seen. In April, 1776, a 
white bear and cubs were seen near Huntington Island, 
and in the following May another was observed. White 
bears were also seen up the rivers leading into Sandwich 
Bay, and on pp. 410-1 1 Cartwright describes the habits 
of the white bear in Labrador, statingjthat the young 



.364 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

^re born in March, the parent bringing forth usually one 
at a time, sometimes two. 

While on the coast of Labrador in the summers of 
i860 and 1864, we gathered what facts we could as to the 
occurrence of this animal, publishing them in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History (Vol. 
X, 1866, 270), from which we take the following, extract : 

" At Square island, a locality situated between Belle 
Isle and Domino Harbor, two cubs were captured and 
-taken to St. Johns, Newfoundland. At Domino Har- 
bor the skin of a bear killed during the preceding spring 
(1863) was obtained by one of our party. An intelli- 
gent hunter told me that the white bear was not unfre- 
quently seen at Stag Bay, near Roger's Harbor, which 
is situated a little more than fifty miles south of Hope- 
dale. One was killed there during the preceding winter 
(1863), and in the autumn their tracks were abundant. 
They were very shy, and could not be seen in the day- 
time. Further south they are much rarer. The last 
polar bear said to have been seen in the Strait of Belle 
Isle was shot fifteen years ago (1849), ^^ the settlement 
of Salmon Bay." 

While the entire peninsula was during the glacial 
period mantled in ice, and as cold, or nearly so, as 
Greenland is at present, the more exposed parts of the 
coast north of Belle Isle are still arctic, or at least sub- 
arctic. On the other hand the main land, for the most 
part consisting of Laurentian gneiss and schists, has 
probably from Archaean times been dry land, forming an 
important portion of the continental nucleus of North 
America. Its scanty soil is now over a large proportion 
of its surface probably frozen throughout the year ; the 



DISTRIBUTION OF INDIANS AND ESKIMOS. 365. 

Barren Grounds extend as far south as perhaps lat. 58°,. 
and spread still southward on the higher elevated por- 
tions of the plateau, which are bare of trees, so that the 
northern third of the peninsula is practically arctic, the 
animal and plant life being essentially arctic. But 
southward, including the sheltered valleys of the north- 
ern or Atlantic coast and of the elevated interior, with 
the St. Lawrence region, the climatic features and flora 
and fauna are like those of the western and southern 
shores of Hudson's Bay and the northern shores of 
the St. Lawrence. It thus forms a portion of the Boreal 
or Canadian Province of temperate North America. 

It will thus be seen that the conditions of existence, 
and the adjustment of the plants and animals to their 
habitats in Labrador, are those primarily depending on 
the temperature both of the ocean and of the air ; and 
the more we know of the distribution of life in this 
region, the more delicate appears to be the balance 
maintained between the organisms and their environ- 
ment. This is also seen in the relative distribution of 
the Indians and Eskimos. The former inhabit the 
boreal, wooded portions ; the latter the arctic, bare, tree- 
less, arctic portions of the coast and of the Barren 
Grounds, when the latter shade into the barren east and 
west coast of the northern extremity of the peninsula. 
The best" example of a purely arctic animal which 
still breeds on the coast is the white bear. It is an in- 
teresting fact that at Fort George, Hudson's Bay, both 
the black and white bear are known to breed. The 
white bear mates about the middle of April, and 
" the young, from one to three in number, are born in 
holes under rocks lined with brush, grass, and moss, to- 



366 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

wards the end of October. At time of birth they are 
the size of a large rat, white in color, helpless, and with 
closed eyes. They are suckled for five months, the male 
assisting in rearing them." * 

With the white bear is still associated the walrus, 
which was formerly as abundant on this coast, and in 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the Magdalen Islands and 
certain parts of Nova Scotia, as it now is in the polar 
regions. 

The Britons and Basques, as well as the English, went 
to the Gulf of St. Lawrence after morses, during the 
years 1591-93. How abundant they were is stated in 
" A relation of the first voyage and discoverie of the 
Isle Ramea, made by for Monsieur de La 

Court Pre Rauillon, and Grand Pre, with the ship 
called the Bonaventure, to kill and make Traine oil of the 
beast called the Morses with great teeth, which we have 
perfourmed by Gods helpe this yeere 1591." (Hakluyt 

iii- 235-) 

" The coast stretcheth three leagues to the west from 
Lisle Blanch or the white Isle, vnto the entrance of a 
riuer, where we slewe and killed to the number of fif- 
teene hundred Morses or Sea oxen, accounting small and 
great, when at full sea you may come on shoare with 
boates, and within are two or three fathoms water." 

''The 14 [June] we came to the two Islands of Birds, 
some 23 leagues fro Menego ; where there were such 
abundance of Birds, as is almost incredible to report. 
And vpon the lesse of these Islands of Birds, we saw 
great store of Morsses or sea Oxen, which were a sleepe 

* Miles Spencer, Annual Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey 
of Canada. New Series, iii. Part 2, 1878-88, p. 76. 



THE WALRUS. 367 

vpon the rockes ; but when we approched nere vnto 
them with our boate; they cast themselues into the sea 
and persued vs with such furie as that we were glad to 
flee from them." 

" The three Islands of birds are sandy red, but with 
the multitude of birds vpon them they looke white. The 
birds sit there as thicke as stones lie in a paued street. 
The greatest of the Islands is about a mile in compasse. 
The second is a little lesse. The third is a very little one, 
like a small rocke. At the second of these three lay on 
the shore in the Sunshine about thirty or forty sea-oxen 
or morses ; which when our boat came nere them, pres- 
ently made into the sea, and swam after the boat." (The 
voyage of Mr. Charles Leigh and diuers others to 
Cape Briton and the Isle of Ramea, 1597. Hakluyt 
iii. 242.) 

Parkman* also tells us that the year after the battle 
of Ivry, St. Malo sent out a fleet of small craft in quest 
of this new prize. 

Hind, speaking, of Seven Islands Bay, in his work on 
Labrador, says : " In the spring and at the approach of 
winter it is visited by myriads of ducks, geese, and 
swans ; it was formerly a favorite haunt of the walrus, 
which, although not now seen even in the Gulf itself, 
was once common as far up the great river St. Lawrence, 
as the mouth of Saugenay, and from this animal the 
' Pointe aux Vaches,' about a mile below Tadousac, 
takes its name. Not improbably the 'fishes like horses' 
which the Indians described as frequenting the Chi-sche- 
dec, and which Lescarbot calls hippopotami, were these 
large animals." 

* Pioneers of France in the New World, p. 209. 



368 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

The bones of the wahus were in late years still to be 
found on the shores of the Magdalen Islands, its former 
great abundance there having been commented on by 
Cartier and Charlevoix. According to tradition, it also 
inhabited some of the harbors of Cape Breton ; and I 
have been informed by a Maine fisherman, that on an 
islet near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, the bones of an 
enormous seal-like creature are to be found in the sand 
near the shore, fifteen to twenty feet above the sea. The 
last one seen or heard of in the Gulf, so far as I could 
ascertain, was killed at St. Augustine, Labrador, about 
the year 1S40. One was seen at Square Island in 1849^ 
and two shortly before that, and another was killed at 
the same place about the year 1855. In 1864 I saw^ the 
head of a young walrus, which was found floating dead 
in the drift ice north of Belle Isle, having been killed 
apparently by a harpoon. Mr. Stearns states that two 
were shot in 1880 and 1881 at Fox Harbor, St. Lewis 
Sound, off shore a little way. 

The following lists, with the remarks appended, will 
give in a methodical way what little is really known of 
the zoology of the Labrador coast, beginning with the 
animals of the lowest classes and ascending to the high- 
est. The lists are printed rather for the benefit of the 
scientific than the general reader. It may be mentioned 
that a few species of sponges were collected, but not 
identified. 

CCELENTERATES. (Polyps, Hydroids, etc.) 

Metridium marginatMm Edw. & H. From Indian 
Harbor southward, below low-tide. 

Urticina crassicornis Ehr. From Square Island 
southward ; i-io f. 



POLYPS AND HYDROIDS. 369 

Edwardsia sipunculoides Stimp. Henley Harbor ; 4 f. 

Hydractinia polyclina Agass. Salmon Bay, Strait of 
Belle Isle. 

Coryne mirabilis Agass. Belles Amours, 

Clava niulticornis Pallas. Salmon Bay. 

TJmiaria thuja Fleming. Mingan Islands, Labrador. 

Halecium halecifiMfn Johnst. Caribou Island in eight 
fathoms, gravelly bottom, where its branches supported 
the nests of Ceraptis rubricornis Stimps. Frequent in 
thirty fathoms ; Chateau Bay, on a sandy bottom. 

Halecmm muricatuni Johnst. Off Caribou Island, 
in from thirty to fifty fathoms. Square Island in thirty 
fathoms. 

Cotulina polyzo7iias (Linn.). Caribou Island. 

Cotulma tricuspidata (Alder). Strait of Belle Isle irr 
forty fathoms upon Diphasia rosacea. 

Amphitrocha rugosa (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f. 

Sertularia filicula Ell. and Sol. 

Sertularia falcata Linn. Mingan Islands, Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. 

Sertularia argentea Ell. and Sol. Caribou Island. 

Sertularia cupressina Linn. 

Sertularia abietina Linn. Mingan Islands, Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, and Labrador. 

Diphasia rosacea (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Dynamena pufnila Lamx. Strait of Belle Isle, be- 
tween tide-marks. 

Lafcea dumosa (Johnst.). Cateau Harbor, Long Isl- 
and ; 1 5 f 

Laomedea ainphora Agass. Square Island. 

Clytia vohibilis (Alder.). Henley Harbor, 20 to 30 f. 

Oceania languida A. Agass. Caribou Island, 8 f. 



370 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Campanulm'ia verticillata Johnst. Henley Harbor, 
20 f. 

Lucernaria quadricornis Miill. Caribou Island, 10 f. 

Managua auricula (Fabr.). 

Trachynema digitale A. Agass. Strawberry Har- 
bor, 15 f. 

Cyanea arctica Per. et Lesson. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Aurelia flavidula P^r. et Lesson. Strait of Belle 
Isle, and in retired bays. 

Idyia roseola Agass. Cape Webuc (Harrison) to 
Salmon Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle. 

Pleurobrachia rhododactyla Agass. Little Mecatina 
Island. 

Mertensia ovtiin Morch. 

ECHINODERMS. 

Astrophyton eucnemis M tiller and Troschel. Strait 
of Belle Isle, 18 to 80 f. 

Ophiacantha spinulosa Miill. and Trosch. Strait of 
Belle Isle, 40 f. 

Amphiura sundevalli M. and T. Cateau Bay, Long 
Island, 15 f. 

Ophiopholis aculeata Miiller. Whole coast 2-50 f. 

Ophioglypha Sarsii (Lutken). Cateau Bay, Long 
Island, 15 f. 

Ophioglypha nodosa Lyman. Salmon Bay to Square 
Island, low-water to 30 f. 

Ophioglypha robusta (Ayres). L'Anse-au-Loup to 
Square Island, 2-10 f. (Stearns). 

Crossaster papposa (Linn.). Salmon Bay, Square Isl 
and, 1 5-30 f . 



STARFISH. 371 

Solaster endeca (Linn.) Forbes. Long Island, Cateau 
Bay, i5f. 

Cribella sanguinolenta (Miill.). Salmon Bay, Strait 
of Belle Isle, 15 f., Square Island (Stearns). 

Asterias groenlandicus Steenstr. Caribou Island and 
Square Island, 15 f. 

Asterias vulgaris Stimps. Whole coast. 

Asterias polar is (Mull et Trosch.). Caribou Island, 
Square Island and Hopedale. Large specimens, measur- 
ing 20 inches across, frequently occurred in pools at low- 
water mark. The color in life was a light greenish hue, 
mottled with reddish brown. 

Lepasterias littoralis (Stimps.). Near Square Island, 
.1-5 f. (Stearns). 

StrongylocentrotMS drobachiensis Agass. Whole coast. 

Echinarachnius parina Gray. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Lophothuria Fabricii'SfQxxSSS.. Esquimaux Bay, 15 f. 

Pentacta calcigera Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Pentacta frondosa Jaeger. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Chirodota l(^ve Grube. Whole coast. 

Ettpyrgus scaber Liitken. Salmon Bay, 10 f., to 
Long Island, 15 f. 

Myriotrochus Rinkii Steenstr. Sandwich Bay to 
Domino, 7-30 f. 

POLYZOANS. 

Tubulipora serpens (Linn.). Square Island, 30 f. ; 
Henley Harbor. 

Tubulipora patina Johnst. Domino Harbor, 7 f. 
Tubulipora divisa Stimps. Henley Harbor, 4 f. 
Tubulipora kispida Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 
Tubulipora palmata Wood. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 



372 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Tubulipora expansa (Packard). Strait of Belle Isle. 
Tubulip07'-a atlantica Johnst. Strait of Belle Isle,. 
50 f. ; Square Island, 30 f. 

Discoporella verrucaria (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle,, 

50 f. 

Hippothoa catenttlaric Jameson. 

Hippothoa borealis D'Orb. Strait of Belle Isle and 
Cateau Harbor. 

Hippothoa expansa Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Lepralia annulata O. Fabr. Strait of Belle Isle ; 
also in Cateau Harboi, Long Island, 15 f. 

Lepralia ciliata Johnst. Whole coast. 

Lepralia (n. sp.). Allied to L. trispinosa Johnst. ;; 
very abundant. 

Lepralia per tusa Thomps. Cateau Harbor, 15 f. 

Lepralia producta Pack. 

Lepralia trispinosa Johnst. 

Lepralia Belli Dawson. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Lepralia labiata Stimps. 

Lepralia lineata Hassell. 

Smittia globifera (Pack.). 

Electra pilosa ( Lin n . ) . 

Membranipora lineata (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle,. 
10-50 f. 

Membranipora tmicornis var. americana D'Orb. 

Membranipora solida Pack. 

Beania admiranda Pack. 

Crisiaeburnea{\Jv(\Xi.^. Hopedale, 10 f. ; Henley Har- 
bor, 4 f. 

Bugulopsis Peachii (Busk.). 

Cellularia ternata (Solander). Strait of Belle Isle> 

50 f. 



MOLLUSCS. 373 

Scrupocellaria americana Pack. Strait of Belle Isle, 
50 f. ; Belles Amours, 8 f. ; Square Island, 10-30 f. 
Acamarchis plumosa Busk. Thomas Bay, 15 f. 
Caber e a Hooker i Busk. 

Flustra borealis (Pack.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 
Flustra truncata Linn. 
F. membranacea Linn. 
Flustra papyrea Pall, digitata (Pack.). Chateau Bay, 

30 f. 

Bugula murrayana Busk. Whole coast. 

Bugula murrayana var. fruticosa Pack. 

Cellepora pumicosa Ellis. 

Celleporaria surcularis Pack. Can. Nat. p. 410. 

E'^chara lobata Lamx. ? Whole coast, io--5of. 

E.elegantula\yOx\>. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Porella elegantula D'Orb. var. papposa (Pack.). 
Chateau Bay. 

Leieschara subgracilis (D'Orb.) {Myriozoum subgracile 
D'Orb.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. . 

Brachiopods. 

Hypothyris psittacea King. 

Frequent on hard and sandy bottoms along the whole 
coast in from eight to fifty fathoms. 

MOLLUSCS. * 

LaMELLIBRANCH I ATA. 

Anomia ephippium Linn. Caribou Island, 8 f. ; 
Square Island, 30 f. 

Anomia aculeata GmeHn. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-50 f . 

* This list has been perfected by incorporating the species found by Mr. W. 
A. Stearns, and recorded by Miss Katharine I. Bush in her " Catalogue of 
MoUusca," etc., of Labrador. 



374 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Astarte Banksii Leach. Whole coast in deep water. 

Astarte compressa (Linn.). Abundant on the whole 
coast in from lo to 50 f. 

Astarte arctica (Gray). Henley Harbor to Square 
Island, 2-151 (Stearns). 

Astarte elliptica (Brown). Henley Harbor, 5-15 L 
(Stearns.) 

Astarte striata Leach. Hopedale, 10 f. ' 

Cardium czliatum Fabr. Square Island, 30 f ; Sal- 
mon Bay, 10 f. 

Carduun Hayesii St\v[\\)S. Whole coast, 10-30 f. 

Pec ten tenuico status Mighl. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Pecten islandicus Miill. Whole coast, 10-50 f. 

Limatula smIcuIus, Leach. Several were dredged in 

1 5-50 f- 

Nuc2ila tenuis Turton. Common on the whole coast. 

Nucula expansa Reeve. Chateau Bay, 50 f. 

Yoldia myalis (Couth). L'Anse-au-Loup, 15 f. 

Yoldia sapotilla Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 10-15 f. 

Leda buccata Stimps. Long Island, 15 f. ; Henley 
Harbor, 20 f. 

Leda Jacksoni Gould. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f. 
(Stearns.) 

Leda minuta (Fabr.). Whole coast, 15-50 f. 

Crenella glandula (Totten). Caribou Island, 5 f.; 
Square Island, 30 f. 

Modiolaria corrugata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Modiolaria nigra (Gray). L'Anse-au-Loup, 10 f.. 
(Stearns.) 

Modiolaria discors (IJinn.^. Near Square Island, 1-4 f. 
(Stearns.) 

Modiolaria Icevigata Gray. 



MOLLUSCS. 375 

Modiolaria faba (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

ModioLaria discrepans Miill. Strait of Belle Isle ; 
Square Island, 30 f. 

Mytilus 7nodwlus Linn, Strait of Belle Isle. 

Mytilus edulis Linn. Whole coast. 

Alasmodonta arcuata Barnes ? I was told that a fresh- 
water mussel was common in Salmon River. 

Pisidium SteenbucJiii (Moll.). Square Island and 
Strawberry Harbor. 

Cryptodon obesus Verrill. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f., 
and whole coast. 

Axinopsis orbictdata Sars. Henley Harbor, 10-15 f. 
(Stearns.) 

Venericardia borealis (Conr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 
50 f.; Long Island, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f. 

Cardiuni pinnulaHi'm Conr. It did not occur north 
of the Strait of Belle Isle. 

Serripes groenlandictts Vi&c^. Whole coast, 10-50 f. 

Gemma Totteni Stimps. Indian Harbor, low- water. 

Tapes fiuctuosa Sowb. Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square 
Island, 30 f. 

Mactra solidissima Chemn. Mouth of Esquimaux 
River ; Strait of Belle Isle. 

Mactra polynema Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Mesodesma Jauresii Joannis. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Macoma fragilis {^dihx. fusca Gould). Whole coast. 

Macoma sabulosa Stimps. Whole coast. 

Solen ensis Linn. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Thracia Conradi Couth. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Thracia myopsis Beck. Salmon Bay, 10 f. ; Long 
Island, 15 f. 

Periploma papyracea (Say.), Chateau Bay, 15 £ . 



370 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Kennerlia glacialis (Leach). Strait of Belle Isle, 1 5 f.; 
Henley Harbor, 20 f.; Square Island, 30 f. 

Lyonsia arenosa (Moll.). Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.; 
Long Island, 15 f. 

Cyrtodaria siliqua Daudin. Strait of Belle Isle, 15- 

50 f. 

Mya truncata Linn. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f; Square 
Island, 30 f. 

Mya arena7'-ia Linn. Whole coast. 

Saxicava rugosa Linn. Whole coast, 10-50 f.' 

Gasteropods. 

Clione limacina Phipps. Whole coast. 

Limacina helicina Phipps. Off Cape Harrison. 

Proctoporia f sp. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Eolis sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

Dendronotus arbor escens Fabr. Henley Harbor. 

Cylichna alba Loven. Caribou Island, J 0-15 f.; 
Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Sloop Harbor, 7 f. 

Bulla per tenuis Migh. Belles Amours, 8 f. 

Bulla occulta Migh. 

Coryphella diversa Couth. L'Anse-au-Loup. (Stearns.) 

Tonicella marmorea (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, low- 
water to 50 f., and northward. 

Trachyderfyion album (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

T. rubr^im. (Linn.). Whole coast north to Square 
Island. (Stearns.) 

AcmcBa testudinalis Miill. Low-water to 15 f.; whole 
coast. 

Acmcea rtibella (Fabr.). Square Island, 30 f.; Straw- 
berry Harbor, 20 f. 



MOLLUSCS. 377 

Lepeta ccsca (Miill.). Henley Harbor. (Stearns.) 

Puncturella noachina (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle, 
10-50 f.; Square Island, 30 f. 

Scissurella crispata Flem. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Adeorbis coshdata Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle. 

MachcETOplax varicosa (Mighels). Square Island, 10- 
30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

MachceroplaxobscuraiQowtXi?). L'Anse-au-Loup, 15 f. 

Marga7nta cijierea Gould. Caribou Island, 7 f,; Long 
Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f. 

Margarita argejitata Gould. Near Square Island. 
(Stearns.) 

Margarita grosnlandica (Gm.). Strait of Belle Isle, 
15-20 f. 

Margarita helicina Moll. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Margarita campanulata Morse. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Littorinella minuta (Totten). Strait of Belle Isle ; 
Fox Harbor. (Stearns.) 

Cingula castanea Moll. Strait of Belle Isle ; near 
Square Island, 1-4 f. 

Velutina haliotoides Miill. Whole coast. 

Lacuna vincta Turt. Square Island, 30 f. 

Litto7'ina vestita Gould. Not uncommon along the 
whole coast. 

Littori7ia palliata Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, with 
varieties as in Maine. 

Littorina littorea (Linn.). (Stearns.) 

.Scalaria groenlandica Perry. 

Turritella erosa Couth. Chateau Bay, Long Island, 

Turritella reticulata Mighl. Salmon Bay, 15 f. ; 
Chateau Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Hopedale, 10 f. 



378 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Turritellopsis acicula (Stimps.). Strait of Belle Isle,. 

50 f. 

Aporrhais occidentalis Beck. Salmon Bay to Hope- 
dale, 6-50 f. 

Menestho albula Moll. Strait of Belle Isle, 2-15 f. 

Velutina Icevigata (Linn.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f.;; 
Square Island, 1-4 f. (Stearns.) 

Lamellaria perspicua Loven. 1 5 f. 

Natica heros Say. Salmon Bay, Strait of Belle Isle. 

Natica clausa Sowb. Whole coast, 15 f. 

Lunatia gi^cenlandica (Moll.). Chateau Bay, 15 f. 

Bela scalm'-is {VioW.'). Square Island, 15-30 f.; Dump- 
lin Harbor, 41. 

Bela rosea Sars. Forteau Bay, 20 f. (Stearns.) 

Bela mitrula \^ONkw. With the preceding. (Stearns.) 

Bela iiicisula Verrill. Forteau Bay to Square Isl- 
and, 2--20 f. (Stearns.) 

Bela nobilis (Moller). Whole Coast. 

Bela woodiana Moll. Whole Coast. 

Bela exarata (Moll). W^hole coast. 

Bela decussata (Couth.). Salmon Bay, 10-15 f. ; 
Square Island, 30 f. 

Bela pleurotomaria (Couth.). Square Island, 30 f.;, 
Sandwich Bay, 4 f. 

Bela py rami dalis Stimps. Square Island, 30 f. 

Bela cancellata Mighl. Square Island, 30 f. 

Bela violacea Stimps. Square Island, 30 f. 

Bela borealis (Rve.). Square Island, 30 f.; Sandwich 
Bay 4 f. 

Buccinum donovani QfX2.y . Henley Harbor, low-water 
to 15 f. (Stearns.) 

Buccinum totteni Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8-15 f. 
(Stearns.) 



MOLLUSCS.. 379- 

Buccinum ciliatum (Fabr.). Henley Harbor, 3-8 f. 
(Stearns.) 

Buccinum undatum Linn. Whole coast. 

Bticcinum tenue Gray. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Tritonofiisus C7'etaceus (Reeve). Strait of Belle Isle 
to Square Island, 7-30 f. 

Sipho lividus (Morch). Henley Harbor to Square 
Island, 1-8 f. (Stearns.) 

Fusus syrtensis Pack. Square Island, 30 f. 

Fusus tornatus Gould. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Trichotropis boi'ealis Brod. and Sovvb. Whole coast, 
10-50 f. 

Admete couthouyi (Jay). Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f.. 
(Square Island, 1-4 f. Stearns.) 

Trophon clathratus (Linn.). L'Anse-au-Loup, 10— 
15 f.; Henley Harbor, 3-15 f. 

Trophon scalar if or me Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle,. 
50 f.; Chateau Bay, 50 f.; Henley Harbor, 20 f. 

Astyris rosacea (Gould). L'Anse-au-Loup, 8 f.; 
Henley Harbor, 3-8 f. (Stearns.) 

Ischmia {Pupa^ Hoppii Beck. Strawberry Harbor. 

Zoogeiietes harpa (Say). Caribou Island. 

Conulus {Helix) Fabricii Beck et M oiler. Straw- 
berry Harbor. 

Hyalina electrina (Say). Belles Amours. 

Vitrina angeliccE Beck et Moller. Strawberry Harbor, 

Limax agrestis Linn. Strawberry Harbor and at 
Square Island. 

Cephalopods. 

Ommastrephes illecebrosus Les. L'Anse-au-Loup,, 
i5f.; and Fox Harbor. (Stearns.) 



380 the zoology of the labrador coast. 

Worms. 

Syrinx ? sp. Salmon Bay, 8 f. 

Phascolion strombi Theel. {Phascolosoma hamulatum 
Pack.) Salmon bay, 8 f. 

Gordius lacustris Fabr.? Fauna Gronl. Caribou Is. 

Pontobdella sp. Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

Pontobdella f livida Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f. 

Cerebratidus {Meckelid) olivacea Rathke. Salmon 
3ay 10 f., to Henley Harbor, 20 f. 

Cerebratulus cylindricus Pack. Belles Amours, 8 f. 

Lumbrzcus terrestrzsU^nn.} Square Is. and Hopedale. 

Spirorbis vitretis (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 40- 
,50 f. ; Strawberry Harbor, 15 f. 

Spirorbis sinistrorsiLS Montagu. Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

Spirorbis lucidus Morch. (Spirorbis porrectus Miill.). 
Whole coast, 11-30 f. 

Spirorbis cancellatus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f. 

Spirorbis granulatus (yinW.). Whole coast, 10-40 f. 

Spirorbis spirillum (Linn.). Whole coast. 

Vermilia serrula Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 50 f. 

Amphitrite cirrata Miill. Cateau Harbor ; Caribou 
Island, Strait of Belle Isle, 8 f. 

Amphitrite f s^). 

Ampharete Grubei Malmgren. Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

Pectinaria granulata ( Li nn. ). Cistenides granulatus 
Linn, non Johnst. Whole coast, low-water to 50 f. 

Pr axilla Mulleri Malmg. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f. 

Nicomache lumbricalis Malmg. Salmon Bay, 8 f. 

SpiochcBtopterus typicus Sars. Chateau Bay, 30-40 f. 

Arenicola marina (Linn.). {Arenicola piscatorum 
Lamk.) 



CRUSTACEANS. 38r 

Trophonia aspera (Stimps.). {Siphonostomum as- 
perurn Stimps.) Salmon Bay, 8 f. 

Trophonia plumosa (Miill.). Salmon Bay, lo f. 

Cirj^atulus cirratus (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle. 

Heteronereis arctica Oersted ? Strait of Belle Isle. 

Nephthys lon^isetosa Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f. 

Nephthys ccsca Oersted. Whole coast, 5-30 f. 

Eteone cylindrica Oersted. Belles Amours, 5 f. 

Phyllodoce groenlandica Oersted. Salmon Bay, 8 f.; 
Square Island, 15-20 f. 

Nothria conchy lega Malmgren. Salmon Bay, 15 f.; 
Chateau Bay, 30 f. ; Gateau Harbor, 15 f. 

Nereis pelagica {\J\y\Xi^. Whole coast, 10-30 f. 

Nereis denticulatci Stimps. Salmon Bay, between 
tide-marks. 

Pholoe minuta Oersted. Belles Amours, 8 f. 

Harmothoe imbricata Linn. Whole coast, 4-15 f. 

Lepidonotus squamatus (Linn.). Whole coast, low- 
water to 20 f. 

Crustaceans.* 

Nymphon grossipes Fabr. Salmon Bay and Square 
Island; 1 5-30 f. 

Coronida dicideina (Linn.). Taken quite frequently 
from the skin of whales caught in the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence. 

Bajanus crenatus Brug. Whole coast. 

Balanus balanoides Linn. Whole Coast, 

Balanus porcatus Da Costa. Whole coast. 

* Compare also " List by Prof. S. J. Smith of Crustacea from Port Burwell, 
collected by Dr. R. Bell in 18S4." Report of Progress of Geological and Nat- 
ural History Survey and Museum of Canada, 1882-83-84., Appendix iv. 57 
DD. (Port Burwell is an inlet on the Ungava side of Cape Chidley), 



382 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

LerncEa branchialis Linn. 

Daphnia sp. Found abundantly in all the fresh-water 
pools. 

Cypridina excisa Stimps. 

Branckinecta paludosa (Miill.). Found abundantly at 
" Indian Tickle," on the north shore of Invuctoke Inlet, 
in a pool of fresh water. 

Nebalia bipes Fabr. Henley Harbor, 4-8 f. 

Bopyi'us mysidum Pack. 

y^ga sp. One specimen was taken from the under 
side of a cod in the Strait of Belle Isle. 

Tanais fikim Stimps. Caribou Island, 8 f. 

Praniza cerina Stimps. Chateau Bay, Long Island, 

15 f- _ 

JcEra nivalis Ys^xoy^x. Indian Harbor, Sandwich Bay. 

IdotcEa marmorata Pack. Sloop Harbor, Kyuetar 
buck Bay, 7 f. 

Caprella septentrionalis Kroyer. Whole coast, 4-30 f. 

Hyperia medusaruin Bate. Found with numerous 
young in the stomach-cavity of Cyanea ardica, at Dom 
ino Harbor. 

Dulichia porreda {Jide Boeck). 

Cerapus rubriforniis Stimps. Inhabits flexible tubes 
in Haleduin haledna. Eight fathoms, sand, Caribou 
Island, Strait of Belle Isle. 

Ainphithoe maculata Stimps. Henley Harbor, 8 f. 

Gaminarus loc7ista (Linn.) Leach. 

Gaminarus dentatus Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30 
f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 15 f.; Chateau Bay, 20-30 f. 

Parampkitoe panopla Kroyer. 

Calliope Icsviuscula Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f.; Stag 
Bay, 15 f. 



CRUSTACEANS. 383 

Amphitonohis Edwardsii Bate. Square Island, 30 f. 

Amphito7iotus cataphractus Stimps. Henley Harbor, 
4f. 

Atyhis vulgaris Bate. Henley Harbor, 4 f.; Square 
Island, 15 f.; at Stag- Bay, 15 f. 

Atylus {ParampJiitoe) inermis (Kroyer). Henley 
Harbor, 10-20 f. 

Atylus {Paramphztoe) bispinosus Beck. 

Mojwciilodes nubilahis Pack. Caribou Island, 8 f.; 
Henley Harbor, 4 f. 

Ampeltsca Gaimai'di. Chateau Bay, 30 f. ; Cateau 
Harbor, 15 f. 

Ampeltsca pelagica (Stimps). Chateau Bay, 30 f.; 
Stag Bay, 10 f.; Caribou Island, 8 1; Long Island, 15 f.; 
Strawberry Harbor, 14 f. 

Ampelisca Eschrichtii Kroyer. Caribou Islatid, 
14 f. 

Haploops tubiccla Kroyer. Cateau Harbor, 15 f. 

Pontoporeia femorata Kroyer. Belles Amours, Strait 
of Belle Isle, 5-8 f. 

Anoiiyx ampttlla (Phipps). Dumplin Harbor, Sand- 
wich Bay, 4 f, 

Aiionyx lageiia Kroyer. Sloop Harbor, 8 f. 

Anonyx product a, 15 f., sand. 

Lysianassa appe^idicztlata Kroyer. Henley Harbor, 
Strait of Belle Isle, 40 f. 

Alauna Goodsiri Bell. Belles Amours, 6 f.; Thomas 
Bay, 15 f.; Square Island, 15-30!.; Henley Harbor, 8 f.; 
Cateau Bay, Long Island, 15 f. 

Mysis oculata Fabr. Abundant along the whole coast. 
The young go in schools, and the sea-trout consume 
great numbers of them. 



384 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Pandalus annulicornis Leach. Henley Harbor ; 
Sloop Harbor, 6 f. ; Hopedale, 10 f. 

Hippolyte aculeata (Fabr.) Kroyer. Caribou Island^ 
14 f.; Square Island, 15-30 f.; Domino Harbor, 7 f.; 
Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f. 

Hippolyte Polaris {^•dihme) Kroyer. Square Island,. 
15-30 f.; Strait of Belle Isle, 10 f. 

Hippolyte PJiippsii Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f. 

Hippolyte turgida Kroyer. Belles Amours, 10 f. 

Hippolyte macilenta Kroyer. Square Island, 15-30 f.. 

Hippolyte Sowerbyi Leach. Square Island, 15-30 f. 

Hippolyte Gaimardi M. Edwards. Common on the 
whole coast. Caribou Island, 15 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; 
Henley Harbor and Sloop Harbor, 8 f .; Hopedale, lof. 

Hippolyte Fabricii Kroyer. Domino Harbor, 7 f. 

Argis lar Owen. Square Island, 30 f. 

Sabinea septemcariitata Sabine. Thomas Bay, 15 f. 

Crangoii boreas (Phipps). Caribou Island, 8 f.; Strait 
of Belle Isle, 10 f.; Square Island, 30 f.; Henley Har- 
bor, 4-10 f. 

Crangon vulgaris Fabr. Caribou Island. 

Homarus americanus M. Edw. Henley Harbor ; 
rare. This seems to be the northern limits of the lobster. 

Eupagtirus pubescens Stimps. Abundant on the 
whole coast from low-water mark to fifty fathoms. Strait 
of Belle Isle, 50 f.; Hopedale, 10 f. 

Eupagitrus Kroyeri Stimps. Found with preceding. 

Hyas coarctata Leach. Henley Harbor, 30 f. 

Hyas araiiea (Linn.). Abundant along the whole 
coast, 5-50 f. 

Chioncecetes opilio (Fabr.). Strait of Belle Isle^ 
10-50 f.; Chateau Bay, 30-50 f. 



SPIDERS. 385 

Cancer borealis Stimps. Not uncommon at Caribou 
Island, Strait of Belle Isle, but it did not occur to us 
northward. I was informed that it was found in Hamil- 
ton Inlet, where the temperature of the water must be 
higher than on the coast. 

LIST OF THE SPIDERS, MYRIOPODS, AND 
INSECTS OF LABRADOR. 

A list of all the known species of terrestrial Arthro- 
pods of the Labrador coast may prove convenient as a 
starting-point for future investigations. Hence I have, 
besides enumerating the species of other groups, revised 
the lists of Lepidoptera — Mr. Scudder kindly contribut- 
the list of butterflies. For changes in the names of the 
Tortricidee I am indebted to Prof. C. H. Fernald's ex- 
cellent catalogue 0/ the Tortricidse of the United States; 
Prof. Fernald has also revised the list of Pyralidae. 

Arachnida. 

The spiders which I collected at various points on the 
coast were sent to Prof. T. Thorell, of Upsala, for iden- 
tification and description. Out of ten species collected^ 
seven were new to science. Prof. Thorell's paper was 
published in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 
Natural History, xvii,, April 21, 1875. 

Epeira patagiata (Clerck). Square Island, Straw- 
berry Harbor. 

Epeira Packardii Thor. Square Island. 

Tetrag7iatha extensa (Linn.). Square Island. 

Linyphia Emertonii Thor. Square Island, and near 
Dumplin Harbor. 



386 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Clubiona frigidula Thor. Square Island. 

Gnaphosa brumalis Thor. Strawberry Harbor. 

Lycosa groenlandica Thor. Strawberry Ei arbor. 

Lycosa furcifera Thor. Square Island, and near 
Dumplin Harbor. 

Lycosa fuscula Thor. Strawberry Harbor. 

Lycosa labradorensis Thor. Strawberry Harbor and 
Square Island. 

Xysticus labradorensis Keys. K. K. Zool. Bot. Ges. 
Wien., 479, 1887. Ungava Bay (Turner). 

Myriopoda. 
Julus sp. Square Island. 

Insects. 

Orthoptera. 

CaloptenMs. A Pezzotettix-like species, with short 
wings. Square Island. 

Odoiiata. 

Diplax S'p. y wQdiX rubicMndula. Caribou Island. Drag- 
on-flies were very rare on the coast, and I saw none 
north of the Strait of Belle Isle. 

y^schna sp. Caribou Island. Perhaps another 
species (identified by Dr. P. R. Uhler) also occurred, 
and an yEschna-like form was observed at Tub Island. 

Hemiptera. 

Teratocoris sp. 

Delt&cephalus debilis Uhler. Hopedale. A few other 
species of Cercopidse were seen at Caribou Island. 



BEETLES. 387 

Trigonotylus ruficornis Fallen. Hopedale. 
Corixa sp. 

Platyptera.- 
Pteronarcys regalis. Okkak. Hopedale. 

Plectoptera. 

Potamanthus marginatus Zett. This boreal European 
May-fly, occurring in Lapland, we have found in abun- 
dance in southern Labrador. 

Perla sp. Belles Amours. 

Chloroperla sp. A small greenish species was observed 
at Strawberry Harbor. 

Trichoptera. 

Desmataulius planifrons Kol. Okkak. 

Lininophilus subpunctulatus Zett. This Lapland cad- 
dis-fly is the most abundant species in Labrador, and 
what are probably its cases are common in the pools of 
fresh water. Three or four other species also occurred, 
but have not' been identified. No gQxvmxiQ Neuroptera 
or Mecoptera (Panorpidse) occurred. 

COLEOPTERA. 

Lepyrus colon (Linn.). Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 
Pissodesf sp, Hopedale. 
Coccinella lacustris Lee. Okkak. 
Lephira sp. Caribou Island. 
Criocephalus obsoletus Randall. Okkak. 
Ar^aleus nit ens Lee. Near Cape Harrison. 
Telephorus fraxini Say. Hopedale. 
Podabrus Icsvicollis Kir by. Hopedale. 



388 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Podabrtts mandibularis Kirby. Caribou Island. 
Sericosomus incongruus Lee, Square Island. 
Eanus vagus Lee. Square Island, 
E. pictus (Cand.) Horn. {E. 7naciilipennis Lee.) 
Caribou Island to Square Island, 

CryptohypntLs bicolor Germ. Belles Amours, Straw- 
berry Harbor and Indian Harbor. 

Byrrluis americanus Lee. Caribou Island. 
B. Kirbyi Lee. {B. picipes). Caribou Island. 
Atomaria. Not determined. Caribou Island. 
Ips sanguinolenhis Oliv. Caribou Island. 
Bledius. Not determined. 

Qucdius sublimbatus Mokl. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell).. 

Tachyporus n. sp. Hopedale. 

Creophilus villosus Gray. Caribou Island. 
Agathidhtm obsoletum Lee. Square Island. 

Silpha Lapponica Linn. Caribou Island to Hopedale. 
Philhydrus bifidus Lee. Caribou Island. 

Gy rimes picipes AuhQl Square Island. 

G. mimitus Linn. Square Island. 

G. affinis Aube ? Square Island. 

Colymbetes picipes Kirby. Caribou Island and Straw- 
berry Harbor. 

C. binotatus Harris (probably). 

C. sculpttlis Harris. Caribou Island, Square Island, 
Hopedale, 

C. nov. sp. Square Island. 

Agabus parallelus Lee, Square Island. 

A. longiilus Lee.? Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). 

A. ambigicus Lee. {A. infuscatus Aube), Caribou 
Island, 

A. subfasciatus Lee, Caribou Island. 



BEETLES. 389 

A. semipimctatus (Kirby). Caribou Island. 

A. liBvidorsus Lee. Caribou Island. 

A. punctulaius Aube. Caribou Island. 

A. discolor Lee. Indian Harbor. 

Hydroporics caiascopium Say. Square Island and 
Dumplin Harbor. 

H. tenebrosus Lee. Caribou Island. 

H. pubertdus Lee. Sloop Harbor and Dumplin 
Harbor. 

H. longicor7iis. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). 

H. perplexus Shp. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). 

Trechus inicans Lee. Belles Amours. 

Patrobus tenuis Lee. Square Island. 

P. hyperborezis Dejean. Belles Amours, Strait of 
Belle Isle ; Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

Harpalus herbivagus Say., vdiX.proximus Lee. Square 
Island. 

A mar a obiusa Lee. 

Amara, near A. melanogastrica Esch., perhaps A. 
hrunni. 

A. pennis Dej. Caribou Island. 

Amara, "no name." Strawberry Harbor, Square 
Island, and Hopedale. 

A. similis Lee. {Stereocerzis siniilis Kirby). Caribou 
Island. 

A. hceniatopus Kirby. Sloop Harbor, Hopedale, 
Okkak (S. Weiz). 

Pterostichus adstricttts Esch., var. orinomum Kirby. 
Mecatina ; Gulf St. Lawrence. 

Pterostichtis hudsonictis Lee. Stupart's Bay (R. Bell). 

Pt.y species not determined. Hopedale, Tinker Isl- 
and, off Cape Harrison (Cape Webuc). 



390 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Pt. luczottii Dej. Blanc Sablon (R. Bell). 

Platynus simtatus Dej. Belles Amours, Strait of 
Belle Isle. 

Calathus ingratus Dej. Whole coast. 

Carabus chamissonis Fischer. Domino Harbor and 
Okkak. 

Nebria Sahlbergii Fischer. Sloop Harbor, Cape 
Chidley (R. Bell). 

Notiophilus Sibiricus Motsch. Domino Harbor,, 
Square Island, 

DiPTERA. 

Scatina estotilandica Rondani, Archiv, etc. Canestrini 
iii., fasc. i, 35, Labrador. Osten Sacken adds : Mr. 
Rondani, in the same place, mentions Scatophaga dia- 
dema Wiedemann (Montevideo) as having been re- 
ceived from Labrador. 

Helophilus glacialis Loew. Stett. Ent. Zeit. vii., 121. 

Helophilus groenlandictis (O. Fabr.). 

Dolichopzis stenhammariX^XX. Sloop Harbor, July 19. 

Therioplectes fiavipes Wied. 

Therioplectes septentrionalis Loew. Verh. Zool. Bot. 
Ges Wien., 1858, 593. 

Tipula tessellata Loew. Cent, iv., 4. 

Tipula septentrionalis Loew. Cent, iv., 3. 

Micromyia leucorum. Prof. C. W. Woodworth writes 
me that on examining the collection of Diptera which 
I made in Labrador, and which is now in the Cambridge 
Museum, he detected the rare European Cecidomyid 
Micromyia leucorum, " belonging to a genus hitherto 
unrecorded for North America." The collection consists 
mostly of muscids, with some interesting Empidse. 



MOTHS. 391 

Amalopsis hyperborea O. Sacken. Monogr. iv., 269. 
Dicranomyia halter ata O. Sacken. Monog. iv., 71. 

LEPIDOPTERA. 

TineidcE. 

Glyphipteryx sp. Caribou Island. 

Tinea fuscipunctella Haw. ( = CEcophora frigidella 
Pack.). Caribou and Square Islands. 

CEcophora sp. Hopedale, 

Incurvaria labradorella Clem. Caribou Island. 

Or nix boreasella Clem. Caribou Island. 

Tinea spilotella Tengstrom. Caribou Island, Square 
Island, " Okkak, June." Christoph. 

Gelechia continuella Zell. Moeschl. ( = trimaculella 
Pack.). Strawberry Harbor. 

Gelechia labradorica Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Gelechia brumella Clem. Caribou Island. 

Tortricidce. 

Grapholitha nebulosana Pack. Strawberry Harbor. 

Phoxopteris plagosana (Clem.). Caribou Island and 
Square Island. 

Phoxopteris tineana Hiibn. (Pandemis leucophale- 
rata Pack.). Hopedale. 

Sericoris- bipartitana (Clem.). Caribou Island. 

Pcedisca solicita^ia (Walk.) (Halonota packardiana 
Clem.). Caribou Island. 

Sericoris ttirfosana H. S. 

Sericoris glaciana yio^'=>Q\\\. Whole coast; common. 

Penthina ctipreana (Htibn.). 

Penthina murina Pack. Caribou Island. 



392 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Pentliina septentrionana Curtis. Sloop and Straw- 
berry Harbors. (Polar regions, Curtis.) 

Penthina interinistana (Clem.). (P. tessellana Pack.). 
Caribou Island to Hopedale. 

Penthina frigidana Pack. 

Conchy lis deutschiana Zetterstedt (Lozopera ? fusco- 
strigana Clem. ; C. chalcana Pack.). 

Sciaphila osseana Scopoli (Ablabia pratana Hiibn.) 

Sciaphila Tnoeschleriana (Wrcke). 

Sciaphila niveosana Pack. Moravian Stations, Au- 
gust. 

PyralidcE. 

Crambus unistriatellus Pack. Caribou Island. 

Cr ambus argillaceellus Pack. Square Island. 

Crambus trichostoin2is Christoph. Moravian, Stations. 

Crambus labradorensis Christoph. " Okkak, July." 

Crambus albellus Clem. Mouth of Esquimaux River, 
Aug. 3. 

Crambus iitornatelhts CX&m.. Caribou Island, July 15. 

Scopai^ia centuriella Sv. {Pempelia fusca Harv. 
Miidorea f frigidella Pack.). 

Eiidorea f albisinuatella Pack. Okkak. 

Pyrausta borealis Pack. Square Island. 

Pyrausta ephippialis Zettst. 

Pyrausta t or v a lis Moeschl. 

PhlyctcBHia inquinatalis Zell. (Scopula glacialis Pack.). 
Hopedale. 

PhalcBnidcE. 

Ettpithecia htteata Pack. Caribou Island, July. 

Eupithecia gelidata Moeschl. ?v4oravian Stations. 

Glaucopteryx ccesiata (S. V.). Whole coast. 



MOTHS. 393 

Glaucopteryx polata (Dupon.). Whole coast. 

Glaucopteryx phocataria (Moeschl,). Moravian Sta- 
tions. 

Epirrita dilutata (Borkh.). Moravian Stations. 

Petrophora truncata (Hufn.). Wtiole coast. 

PetropJiora prunata (Linn.). Whole coast. 

Petrophora populata (Linn.). Whole coast. 

Petrophora suspectata (Moeschl.). Moravian Stations. 

Ochyria mu?titaria Htibn., and var. labradorensis 
Pack. Caribou Island. 

Ochyria abrasaria H. Sch. Caribou Island. 

Rhetiinaptera hcgtibrata Stand. Whole coast. 

Rheinnaptera hastata (Linn.). Whole coast. 

Rheumaptera disceptaria (F. R.). Moravian Stations. 

Triphosa diibitaria (Linn.). Caribou Island. 

Semiothisa dispuncta (Walk.). (Sex-maculata Pack.). 
Square Island. 

Anaitis sororaria Hiibn. Moravian Stations. 

Aspilates gilvaria S. V. Moravian Stations. 

Acidalia sentinaria Hiibn. Moravian Stations. 

Acidalia frigidaria Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

NoctuidcB. 

Brephos parthemas {\J[nn^. Moravian Stations. 
Phtsia 2L-aureum Boisd. Moravian Stations. 
Plusia par ills Htibn. Moravian Stations. 
Plusia divergens Fabr Moravian Stations. 
Anarta fimesia (Thunberg). Moravian Stations. 
Anarta melanopa (Thun.). Moravian Stations. 
Anarta melaletica (Thun.). Moravian Stations. 
Whole coast. 



394 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Anarta vidua Christoph. Moravian Stations. 

Ana7'ta cordigera (Thun.). Moravian Stations. 

Anarta algida Lef. Moravian Stations. 

Anarta lapponica (Thun.). Moravian Stations. 

Anarta schonherri TLttt. Moravian Stations. 

Anarta zetterstedtii Stand. Moravian Stations. 

Hadena exults Lef. Moravian Stations. 

Hadena exornata Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Pachnobia carnea Thun. Moravian Stations. Whole 
coast. 

Pachnobia okakensis. Packard. Okkak. 

Mamestra arctica Boisd. Whole coast. 

Dianthoecia subdita Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Diartthoecia phoca Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Noctua rava H. Sch. (umbratus Pack.). Moravian 
Stations. 

A gratis septentrionalis Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis fusca Boisd. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis Wockei Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis speciosa Hiibn. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis comparata Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Aprotis dissona Moeschl. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis conflua Tr. Moravian Stations. 

Agrotis littoralis Pack. Caribou Island. 

Leucania rufostrigata Pack. Caribou Island. 
Lip ar idee. 

Laria Rossii (Curtis). Whole coast. 
ArctiidcB. 

Arctia Quenselii Paykull. Whole coast. 

Platarctia borealis (Moeschler). Moravian Stations. 

Euprepia caja (Linn.). Whole coast. 



BUTTERFLIES. 395 

HepialidcB. 

Hepialus labradoriensis Pack. Caribou Island. 
Hepzalus kyperboreusyioQschXQX. Moravian Stations- 

* Rhopalocera. 

Brenthis chariclea (Schneid.). This is the Argynnis 
boisduvalii of the previous list. A detailed description 
of the species, drawn up exclusively from American 
material, will be found in the Proc. Bost. Nat. Hist. 
Soc, Vol. xvii., p. 297, where most of the other species 
are described. Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, and 
from Square Island northward. July 14— August 3. 

Abundant. 

Brenthis triclaris (Hiibn.) = Argynnis triclaris of the 
previous list. Caribou Island to Hopedale, July 14— 

August 3. 

Brenthis polaris (Boisd.) = Argynnis polaris of the 
former list. From Square Island northward. July 14 

— August 3. 

Brenthis frigga (Thunb.) = Argynnis frigga of the 
former list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.) 

Eugonia j-album (Boisd.-Lec.) = Grapta interroga- 
tionis of the previous list. Okkak. (Rev. S. Weiz.) 

CEneis jutta Htlbn. = Chionobas jutta of previous 
list. Square Island, July 14; Hopedale, August 3. 

* A revised list of the butterflies obtained in Labrador by Dr. A. S. Packard, 
by Samuel H. Scudder. (The list was prepared for use in the present work. 
The species have been arranged in the descending order by the author.) In 
1866 I published a list of Dr. Packard's collections in the Proceedings of the 
Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xi. The present list is merely a rede- 
termination of the same material, in the light of larger collections since seen.^ 
The same order as before is followed. The specimens are mostly in my collec- 
tion and in that of the Museum of Comparative Zoology.— S. H. S. 



396 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

CEneis bore (Esp.) = Chionobas bore of former list. 
Hopedale, Aug. 3. 

CEneis oeno (Boisd.) = Chionobas oeno of former list. 
Strawberry Harbor ; Hopedale, August 3. 

Agriades aquilo (Boisd.) = Lycsena aquilo of former 
list. Sloop Harbor, July 19 ; Henley Harbor, August 
15; Hopedale, Aug. 3. 

Pieris frigida Scudd. I have not re-examined this. 
Caribou Island, Strait of Belle Isle, July 14-30. 

Eurymus labradorensis (Scudd.). This is the Colzas 
J>alcBno, as well as the C . labradorensis of the previous 
list. The specimen referred to the former being of the 
same species as the latter. I will not here venture on a 
discussion as to the validity of the specific name retained 
here, but as the species was described and figured suffi- 
ciently for determination, and is the common form in 
south-eastern Labrador, it is easily identifiable. Caribou 
Island to Hopedale, July 14 — August 3. 

[We add the following extract from W. H. Edwards, 
Can. Ent. xxi. 67. Chionobas semidea Say '' also flies 
within the Arctic circle, as far north as Cumberland 
Island, and in Labrador."] 

TuNicATES (Ascidians). 

Didemnium roseum Sars. Hopedale, 10 f. 
Ascidia callosa Stimps. Strait of Belle Isle, 40-50 f. 
Glandida glutinans M oiler. Henley Harbor, 6 f 
Cynthia pyr if ormis Rathke. Strait of Belle Isle. 
Cynthia monoceros Moll. (C condylomata Pack.). 
Caribou Island, 8 f. 

Cynthia echinata (Linn.). Chateau Bay, 50 f. 



FISHES. 19T 

Cynthia carnea Ag. (C. placenta Pack.). Strait of 
Belle Isle, 40 f.; Henley Harbor, 10-20 f.; Cateau 

Harbor, 15 f. 

Pelonaia areiiifera Stirnps. Strait of Belle Isle, 15 t. 
Boltenia bolteni (Linn.). Strait of Belle Isle. 

Fishes. 

Somniosus microcephalus (Block). '* Sleeper shark." 
Not rare all along the coast. (Stearns.) 

Scomber vernalis Mitch. A few mackerel are taken 
In August in Salmon Bay and Red Bay. The Strait of 
Belle Isle is evidently the northern limit of this genus. ^ 

Pygosteus Ctwieri Brevoorti. {Gastej^ostezis Cuvieri 
Girard; Gasterosteus biaculeatus Auct. in part). A 
large number of specimens from a tidal fresh-water 
spring, near Salmon River, Strait of Belle Isle. 
" Ammodytes dubius Reinhardt. Four specimens from 
Sloop Harbor, collected in July. They differ from the 
A. antericanus of our coast in having a much longer 
body. This species is probably the American one con- 
sidered by some authors as the A. tobianus. (Putnam.) 

Sebastes norvegicus Cuv. Young specimens were 
dredo:ed in fifteen fathoms. 

Gynnnacanthus patris (Storer). Three specimens 
from Henley Harbor, collected in July. 

Cottus scorpioides Fabr. Sculpin. (Stearns.) 
Cottus grcenlandtcus Cuv. and Val. Northern sculpin. 

(Stearns.) 

Gymnacanthtts pistilliger (Pallas). (Stearns.) 
Hippoglossoides platessoides Fabr. Arctic dab. Com- 
mon in harbors. (Stearns.) 



398 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Pleuronectes aniericanus Walb. Flounder. Whole 
southern coast. (Stearns.) 

Cyclopterus lumpus Linn. Strait of Belle Isle. 

GadiLs arenosMs Mitchill. Eight specimens from 
Sloop Harbor, collected in July. From a careful com- 
parison I am satisfied that these specimens are the same 
species as the common cod of New England, the Gadus 
and Morrkua americana of authors, and which Prof. 
Gill considers as identical with the Gadus arenosus of 
Mitchill. Prof. Gill also has considered specimens of 
the cod from Labrador, which he had examined, as iden- 
tical with our common species. (Putnam.) 

It happened that our vessel touched at the different 
harbors from Mecatina Island in the St. Lawrence Gulf 
to Hopedale, a distance of over six hundred miles, at 
times when the cod was successively making its first ap- 
pearance. Thus at Gore Island, near Little Mecatina 
Island, we found the cod was just beginning to be taken 
by the fishermen. June i6. A few were seined July 6th, 
at Square Island, on the Atlantic coast. July 12th they 
were evidently breeding, as the females were full of 
spawn, their livers poor, with little oil in them, and the 
fish were generally in poor condition. At Tub Island 
Harbor, which is situated on the south side of Hamilton 
Inlet, the fishery had not begun July 17th. Three days 
later a few were seined at Sloop Harbor, on the north 
side of Hamilton or Invuctoke Inlet, while at Strawberry 
Harbor, about fifty miles to the northward, they were 
caught in abundance on the 25th of July. The season 
was so cold and stormy, owing to the presence of the 
drift ice in an unusual quantity, and for a much longer 
period than for many years previous, that the fishery 



FISHES. 399 

^as almost a failure, scarcely half as many fish having 
been taken as during the preceding year. It was the 
same with the salmon and the capelin. 

The " rock cod," or duffy, as it is termed by the fisher- 
men, which they consider less valuable than the deep 
water cod, swarms about the boats when the fisherman 
are seining the capelin, and are seen snapping them up. 

G adzis ogac ^\ch2ixdiSon. Greenland codfish. (Stearns.) 

Merlucius vulgaris Fleming ? I was told by a fisher- 
man that he had taken but one hake during a period of 
forty summers spent on this coast. He had never seen 
a haddock on this coast. Both of these species are 
abundant at the mouth of the St. Lawrence in Bay 
Chaleur. 

Brosmius fiavescens Lesueur ? A "cusk" was caught 
in eighty fathoms in the Strait of Belle Isle. The speci- 
men is in the Collection of the Lyceum of Natural His- 
tory, Williams College. 

Salmo salar Linn. Owing to the .great lowering of 
the climate by the drift ice, the salmon fishery was al- 
most a failure this season. The fishery had just begun 
at Henley Harbor, opposite Belle Isle, on the 28th of 
June, 1864. At Square Island they were not netted be- 
fore the 1 2th of July ; here they disappear usually about 
the 15th of August. July 23d they had not appeared at 
this point. At Thomas Bay, near Cape Harrison, they 
appeared on the 2 2d of July. At this place the salmon 
was said to disappear about the 20th of August. At 
Groswater Bay, (Hamilton Inlet), only two hundred 
tierces were taken during the whole season, when usually 
five times that number are caught. 

The salmon remains upon the coast at the mouth of 



400 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Streams about a month, during the Labrador mid-summer, 
which corresponds in temperature to that of the middle 
of May in New England. 

At Hopedale the salmon is quite rare, and I was in- 
formed that it was not common north of this point. It 
seems to be a rare species in Greenland, thus showing 
the close correspondence of the climate of the Labrador 
coast in latitude 57° to that of the southern coast of 
Greenland. One young specimen from a tidal stream 
at Belles A'mours, Strait of Belle Isle, was collected June 
28th. 

Salmo immaculatus H. R. Storer. Three specimens 
from near Hopedale were collected July 29th. These 
specimens are unquestionably referable to the .S. immacu- 
latus of Storer, and are distinct from the 6". trutta of 
Europe, with which species Perley and others have con- 
founded them. They differ from 6". trutta by having 
larger scales, and being without spots, as their name in- 
dicates. (Putnam.) 

Salmo sp f Two specimens from the Island of Ponds, 
near Domino Harbor, collected in July. This species, 
which, from its rather imperfect condition, I have not 
been able to recognize, appears to be closely aUied to 
the kS. t7'utta of Europe, being spotted as in that species, 
but of somewhat different shape, especially of the head. 
There are also specimens from Greenland belonging to 
ihis species in the collection of this Society, collected by 
the Williams College expedition to Greenland and Lab- 
rador in i860. (Putnam.) 

Salmo hudsonicus Suckley. Three specimens from a 
tidal pond of brackish water on Square Island were col- 
lected July 15th. These specimens are identical with 



FISHES. 401 

those mentioned by Dr. H. R. Storer as S. fontmalis, 
which Dr. Suckley referred to his 6". hudso7iicus ; but 
from a comparison of the Hmited number of specimens, 
I am yet in doubt whether the Labrador brook trout 
differs specifically from the S. fontinalis of New Eng- 
land. (Putnam.) 

Mallottis villosMs Cuv. The capelin, capelina of the 
Portuguese fisherman (Parkhurst, 1578), was very late 
in making its appearance on the coast this season, owing 
to the great quantity of ice, which likewise detained the 
cod. At Square Island, the 12th of July was the earliest 
date of their appearance in great numbers. July 4th, 
the young, about one inch in length, vvere seen swim- 
ming in the water, their bodies very transparent, so as 
to enable the vertebrae and ribs to be distinctly seen, and 
provided with very plainly marked heterocercal tails, in 
the upper and larger fork of which the vertebral column 
terminated. 

The capelin spawns on pebbly shores near the waters 
edge, and I was informed by two fishermen who had 
each observed the act, that during the spawning of the 
female, two males swim close to her and press her be- 
tween them, being enabled by the large and prominent 
ridge on the sides of the body to retain the female in 
this position between, and a little below them, so that as 
the eggs are pressed out the}^ are fecundated by both 
males. This probably accounts for the much greater 
proportion of males to the other sex, as in a boat- 
load of these fish it was often difficult to find a single 
female. 

A very close observer, the late Capt. Nathaniel E. 
Atwood, who fished as far north as Groswater Bay as 
female. 



402 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

early as 1819, tells us in his autobigraphy :* " When the 
capelin came on the coast the first that arrived were 
males. You can tell the male from the female by ex- 
ternal signs, so as to distinguish the sexes perfectly well. 
When the males had been on the coast about a week, 
then came a mixture of females. They look very much 
like a smelt, and are soft and full of spawn. We did not 
use them for food. On an average about one-tenth of 
the capelin were females. When they had deposited 
their spawn the males deposited their milt and made the 
whole water white. Then the females went off. vSoon 
after the fishing slacked off, and we used to say they 
were capelin sick." 

According to information received from intelligent 
fishermen, the capelin remains upon the coast the year 
round, but in winter retires to deep water. Is it not 
probable that the cod has the same habit of going from 
deep water in-shore and to elevated " banks," for the pur- 
pose of spawning during the spring and summer ; and in 
the winter of retiring, to depths inaccessible to the fish- 
erman ? Should the cod be found to present local vari- 
eties at intervals along the Atlantic coast, as seems prob- 
ably the case, it would be a natural inference that it did 
not migrate for hundreds of miles northward, following 
the coming of spring from Massachusetts to Hudson's 
Bay. It is abundant in Massachusetts Bay and on the 
coast of Maine during the same time in summer that it 
abounds on the Labrador coast and in Greenland. All 
the facts observed by us tend to prove that the cod does 
not migrate extensively, as commonly supposed. 

* U. S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries. The Fishery Industries of the 
United States. Section IV. Fishermen, 1887. p. 151. 



THE HERRING FISHERY. 403 

Clupea harejigzis, Linn. The herring fishery begins 
111 the Strait of Belle Isle during the middle of August, 
after the cod fishery is over. The fact elicited from 
several intelligent fishermen, that the herring does not 
spawn abundantly upon the coast of Northern Labrador, 
iliat is, above the Mingan Islands, but visits the coast in 
schools after the breeding season is over, while it breeds 
abundantly on the coast of New Brunswick, at Bay Cha- 
leur, the Magdalen Islands, and on the southern coast of 
Newfoundland, affords excellent data for limiting the 
southern boundary of the Arctic fish fauna on tbe eastern 
Atlantic coast. This line agrees with what we have de- 
fined'^ as the southern limits of the " Syrtensian Fauna," 
which as an assemblage peoples the coast of Labrador, 
and extends around the northern shore of the continent 
into Hudson's Bay; and southward, follows the line of 
floating ice, thus partially excluding Anticosti, embracing 
the Banks of Newfoundland, the banks lying off Nova 
Scotia and New England, such as Jeffries and St. 
George's Banks, and more faintly indicated on those 
banks of New Jersey which are swept by the southern 
extension of the Labrador or Polar current. An outlier 
of it is also found at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. 
On the southern shores of Newfoundland, which are 
partially protected from the Polar current sweeping by 
to the eastward, upon which the Gulf Stream slightly 
impinges, though with a much diminished force, the 
herring breeds, as here the species is surrounded by 
physical and climatic conditions very precisely corre- 
sponding to those of Nova Scotia and Maine, thus con- 

* Canadian Naturalist and Geologist. Dec, 1863. 



404 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

stituting an outlying area isolated from, and yet belong- 
ing to the Acadian district or fauna. Therefore it ap- 
pears that the line of floating ice, which extends down 
the coast of Labrador as far as the Mingan Islands, is the 
northward limit of the haddock and mackerel, while the 
herring, a member of the Acadian fauna, does not breed 
in any comparative abundance north of this point. The 
distribution of Radiates, Mollusca, Articulates, and 
Fishes thus agrees very closely on the northeastern 
shores of the continent. 

One person at Henley Harbor takes upon the average 
eight hundred quintals during the short summer season, 
and cures them there. A few herring were seined at 
Square Island on July 6. 

I find in a lecture on the Herring Fishery by M. A. 
Warren, Esq., who owns one of the largest fishing estab- 
lishments on the coast of Labrador, some observations 
on the herring as observed in Labrador and Newfound- 
land, which are here quoted, as the article is not likely 
to fall into the hands of American naturalists. 

"The female herring in Newfoundland come near the 
shore in moderate weather, and deposit their spawn, 
generally at night, in from 3 to 5 fathoms of water. The 
males follow and shed their milt over it." . . . "It is 
impossible, without seeing it, to form any idea of the 
prodigious abundance of the ova of the herring yearly 
deposited in Fortune Bay, and other of the favorite 
spawning-beds of the herring. The water will at times 
be seen white with milt for many acres." ..." From 
personal observation, and from all the information I can 
obtain, I believe there are several schules of herring that 
come in on different portions of our coast to spawn. It 



BATRACHIANS. 4^5 

is certain there are several varieties of the common her- 
ring differing in size, shape, and solidity of flesh. In 
Fortune Bay the spawn is deposited in the months of 
March and April ; in St. George's Bay, in the month of 
May, and a fortnight later on St. Barbe's. My impres- 
sion is that on the southern shore of the Labrador coast 
the spawn is deposited in June, or early in July. During 
the months of August and September the Labrador 
■coast from Mecatina to Bear Island is visited by vast 
shoals of large fat herring, which have in them neither 
roe nor milt. I consider these herring, by their size and 
appearance, to be of the same species or the same shoal 
as those which spawned in St. George's Bay, in May or 
in June, on the Labrador coast, and which pass on in 
September and October to the Arctic waters, or more 
probably to the depth of the ocean. 

" Of iate years herring-seines have been much used on 
the Labrador coast, almost entirely superseding the use 
of nets, to the manifest injury of the fishing population. 
These immense seines, most of them more than one 
hundred and twenty fathoms long, often enclose over 
three thousand barrels of herring. During the first two 
to three years over one hundred and fifty seines were 
used on the coast by Nova Scotia fishermen." 

Batrachia. 

Rana septentrionalis Baird. Okkak. Frogs wete 
heard and seen at Stag Bay, Domino Harbor, Lewis 
Bay, Henley Harbor, and on the coast of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. 

Bufo americana Lee. Salmon Bay. 



406 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Plethodon glutinosa Baird ? A salamander of a dark 
slate color, with a paler dorsal stripe was observed at 
Belles Amours. 

Birds. 

list of the birds of labrador, including ungava, 
east main, moose, and gulf districts of the hud- 
son bay company, together with the island of 
anticosti* 

The scope of country intended to be embraced with- 
in the above heading is bounded on the north by Hud- 
son Strait, extending from east to west ; on the east by 
the Atlantic Ocean ; on the south by the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence to where the parallel of 50 degrees north lati- 
tude strikes the land, then west to the intersection of the 
82d degree of east longitude. The western boundary is 
the 82d degree of west longitude north to Hudson Strait. 

The period during which my own observations were 
made extends from June 15, 1882, to October 3, 1884. 

The principal scene of my investigations was in the 
vicinity of Fort Chimo, situated about 27 miles up the 
Koksoak River, flowing into Ungava Bay, which is an 
immense pocket towards the eastern portion of the south 
side of Hudson Strait. At this place I remained from 
August 6, 1882, to September 4, 1884. 

The southern portions of the country are entirely sub- 
arctic in character, while the northern portions are 
stnctly arctic. 

The topography of the region is so diversified that 

* By Lucien M. Turner. Reprinted by the author's permission from the 
Proceedings of the U. S. National Museum, 1885, pp. 233-254. Revised and 
brought down to 1891, by J. A. Allen. 



BIRDS. 407 

even a scanty description is impracticable in this connec- 
tion. 

The climate is scarcely less diverse, the range of the 
thermometer at Fort Chimo being, for the period men- 
tioned above, 86^ degrees for the maximum, and just 
50 degrees below zero for the minimum, giving a range 
of 136.5 degrees for that period. 

Winter begins (zero of temperature) about the ist of 
November and continues to the last of April. Snow 
falls every month in the year, and the lowest temperature 
of each month in the year is never above the freezing 
point. The warmest night showed only 54 degrees. 
Snow remains from the last of September to the end of 
May ; snow-shoes have been used as late as the 19th of 
May. Rain seldom falls before the nth of May, and 
rarely after the middle of October. 

The bird-life is abundant in individuals if not in species.- 
Some of the birds which most certainly occur within the 
territory, yet of which no satisfactory evidence of actual 
occurrence has been recorded, are with one or two 
exceptions omitted for obvious reasons. Triiiga mari- 
tzma, for instance, certainly occurs somewhere along the 
coast, but has not been detected and recorded ; the same 
with species of Fulix. 

Reference is made to the following authorities, and 
extracts made without comment or responsibility for 
their assertions : 

Audubon, J. J. Birds of America; seven volumes, published 
from 1840 to 1844. 

Nuttall. Manual of Ornithology, rd edition, 1840. 

Verrill, A. E. Notes on the Natural History of Anticosti, 
summer of 1861. Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural 
History, vol. ix., pp. 132 to 150, inclusive. 



408 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Coues, E. Notes on the Ornithology of Labrador, summer of 
i860. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil- 
adelphia, August, 186 1, pp. 215 to 257, inclusive. 

Stearns, W. A. Notes on the Natural History of Labrador 
(v/ith few additions on authority of Coues), i88o-'8i-'82, pp. iii 
to 138. inclusive, of the Proceedings of the United States Na- 
tional Museum, 1883. 

Brewster, William. Notes on the Birds observed during a 
summer cruise in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Proceedings of 
the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xxii., pp. 364 to 412, 
inclusive, October 3, 1883. 

Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. ii. 

Kumlien, L. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 
No. 15. Contributions to the Natural History of Arctic Amer- 
ica, made in connection with the Howgate Polar Expedition, 
i877-'78. Washington, 1879, PP- 69 to 105. 

[The following, mostly issued since the publication of 
Mr. Turner's paper, are of interest as bearing upon the 
bird-fauna of Labrador : 

Stearns, W. A. Bird-life in Labrador, American Field, April 
26-Oct. II, 1890. A series of twenty-five articles, giving at 
length the author's observations on the birds of Labrador. 

Merriam, Dr. C. Hart. List of birds ascertained to occur 
within ten miles of Point de Monts, Province of Quebec, Canada, 
based chiefly upon the notes of Napoleon A. Comeau, Bull. Nutt. 
Orn, Club, vol. vii., 1882, pp. 233-242; vol. viii., 1883, p. 244; The 
Auk, vol. i., 1884, p. 295 ; ii., 1885, p. 113. 

Palmer, William. Notes on the birds observed during the 
cruise of the United States Fish Commission Schooner "Gr;im- 
pus" in the summer of 1887. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. xiii., 
1890, pp. 249-265. 

See also a review of Mr. Turner's List in "The Auk," 
vol. ii., p. 368, and Mr. Turner's reply thereto (" Auk," iii., 
p. 140). 



BIRDS. 409 

The nomenclature here adopted is that of the American 
Ornithologists' Union Check-list of North American 
Birds. In Mr. Turner's list, as originally published, the 
names adopted, were, in the main, those of Ridgway's 
" Nomenclature of North American Birds," forming 
"Bulletin 21" of the U. S. National Museum. In the 
present reprint, aside from the revision of the nomen- 
clature to bring it into conformity with the system now 
almost universally adopted, the only changes are the 
addition of a few titles to the list of authorities cited, 
the numbering of the species consecutively instead of in 
conformity with the Ridgway " Nomenclature," and the 
addition of critical remarks on a few species attributed 
to Labrador on doubtful evidence. 

An asterisk (*) prefixed to a name indicates that the 
species is resident throughout the year. A dagger (f) 
similarly placed indicates breeding. 

J. A. Allen.] 

1. Turdus mustelinus (Gmel.). Wood Thrush. 
Stearns, p. 116, asserts that he heard this species in 

Southern Labrador. [Labrador is quite beyond the 
normal range of this species, which is found only spar- 
ingly in Northern New England. Mr. Stearns omits 
the species from his later "Bird Life in Labrador," cited 
above.] 

2. Turdus fuse esc ens (Steph.). Wilson's Thrush. 
Audubon, vol. iii., p. 27, saw young July 20, 1833. 
Brewster, p. 368, saw a pair July 24, 1881, on Anti- 

costi. [This species can reach Labrador only as a 
straggler, being of rare occurrence even in- Northern 
New England.] 



4IO Tlib: ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

f 3. Ttcrdus alicicB Baird. Gray-cheeked Thrush. 

Rare in Ungava. Common in southeastern and^ 
southern portions. Breeds wherever found in summer. 
Nest and eggs procured at Fort Chimo, June 28, 1884. 

4. Turdus ttstulatus swaznsoni (Caban.). OHve- 
backed Thrush. 

Brewster, p. 369, obtained an adult female at Fox 
Bay, Anticosti, July 11, 1881. 

Verrill reports it very common (p. 137) on Anticosti. 
Specimens were obtained June 13 and in July, i860, at 
Rupert House, by Drexler. 

5. T^trdiLS aonalaschkce pallasii (Caban.). Hermit 
Thrush. 

Brewster, p. 369, found it an abundant species at 
Anticosti and on the south shore of Labrador. 

Verrill, p. 137, found it common at the same place. 

■f 6. Mertda migratoiHa (Linn.). American Robin. 

Abundant throughout the country. Breeding plenti- 
fully at Fort Chimo, Ungava. 

7. Saxicola cEiianthe (Linn.). Stone Chat. 

Coues, p. 218, obtained, August 25, i860, at Henley 
Harbor, Labrador, a single individual of this bird. 

f 8.' Regulus calendula (\-Aww^. Ruby-crowned King- 
let. 

Common in southern portions. Audubon, vol. ii., p.' 
168, found them June 27, 1833, and saw the young of 
the year a month later. 

Coues obtained a specimen August 6, at Rigolet, vide 
p. 219. 

Stearns shot a single specimen at Old Fort Island^ 
October 11, 1881, vide "p. 116. 

f 9. Regulus satrapa'LAc\\X.. Golden-crowned Kinglet, 



BIRDS. 41 r: 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 165, found them feeding their 
young in August. 

10. Parus atricapillus Uixwi. Black-capped Chickadee. 

I am informed by credible persons, long resident in 
the country, that two species of chickadees occur at 
Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton Inlet. 

Verrill, p. 138, reports it very common on Anticosti. 

*f II. Parus kudsonicus VoYSt. Hudsonian Chick- 
adee. 

Abundant everywhere in the wooded tracts. Young 
of the year were obtained July 19, 1882, at Davis Inlet, 
and in early August at Fort Chimo. 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 155, states that they found a nest 
in Labrador. 

12. Sitta canadensis \Jvi\xi. Red-bellied Nuthatch. 
Audubon, vol. iv., p. 179, states that he saw one in 

Labrador which had probably been driven there by a 
storm. 

Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti. 

13. Troglodytes hy emails Vieill. Winter Wren. 
Audubon, vol. ii. , p. 129, found this species in South- 
ern Labrador, July 20, 1833. 

Verrill, p. 138, states that he observed a small wren 
at Southwest Point, Anticosti, in July, which he thought 
was this species. 

f 14. Motdcilla alba Linn, White Wagtail. 

Four individuals of this species were seen by Alex. 
Brown and James Lyall (of the Hudson Bay Company), 
August 29, 1883, ^t Hunting Bay, 4 miles south of Fort 
Chimo. These persons described the bird accurately, 
and declared they were the two parents and two young 



412 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRAIJQR COAST. 

of the year. I must add that I place the fullest reliance 
in their assertion. 

f 15. Ant hus pensilv aniens (Lath.). American Tit- 
lark. 

Abundant throughout the territory. Nests and eggs 
obtained at Fort Chimo, where it breeds plentifully. 

16. Mniotilta varia (Linn.). Black-and-white 
Creeper. 

A specimen was obtained at Moose Factory, May 13, 
i860, and also on the 31st of that month, by C. Drexler. 

Brewster, p. 369, obtained a specimen at Fox Bay, 
Anticosti, July 11, 1881. 

17. Helmmthophila peregrina (Wils.). Tennessee 
Warbler. 

Obtained by Drexler, at Fort George, in June and 
July, i860. 

Brewster, p. 370, obtained a specimen near Fox Bay, 
Anticosti, July 11, 1881. 

18. Compsothlypis americana (Linn.). Blue Yellow- 
backed Warbler. 

Brewster, p. 370, saw a male at Fox Bay, Anticosti, 
July ri, 1881. 

19. Dendroica tigrina (Gmel.). Cape May Warbler. 
Specimen obtained by Drexler, May 28, i860, at 

Moose Factory. 

20. Dendroica (sstiva (Gmel.). Summer Yellow 
Bird. 

Specimen obtained by Drexler, July 12, i860, at Fort 
George. 

Brewster, p. 370, reports it as abundant on Anti- 
'Costi. 



BIRDS. 



415 



t2i. Dendrouacoronatai}Jxxxxi>^. Yellow-rump War^ 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 24. found them plentiful in Lab- 
rador, with young scarcely able to fly. 

Drexler obtained specimens, July 21, .i860, at Moose 

Factory. _, ^ , „ 

t 22. Dendroica maculosa (Gmel). Black-and-yellow 

Warbler. 

Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, May 

28, i860. . , 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 66, reports it common, with eggs 

and nest in beginning of July, 1833. 

Brewster p. 371, found it abundant on Anticosti. 

23. Dendroica ccErulesceiis (Gmel.). Black-throated 

Blue Warbler. 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 63, states he found a deadone in 
Labrador. [This species is erroneously entered in Mr. 
Turner's list as " Dendroica ccEvulea (Wils.). Cerulean 

Warbler."] , ^ ^^. 

24. Dendroica castanea (Wils.). Bay-breasted War- 
bler. 

Drexler obtained a specimen at Moose Factory, June 

2, i860. . . 

Three individuals were seen at Black Island, Hamil- 
ton Inlet, by me July 9, 1882. Two were shot, but lost 
in the thick undergrowth ; one of the birds was actually 
in my hand, but escaped. 

t25. Dendroica striata (Forst). Black-poll War- 
bler. . 

Abundant throughout the wooded .portions ot the 
region. Breeds plentifully at Fort Chimo, where seven 
nests and eggs were obtained in 1884 by me. 



414 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

26. Dendroica blackburnice (Gmel). Blackburnian 
"Warbler. 

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 48, saw several in Labrador. 

27. Dendroica virens (Gmel.). Black-throated Green 
Warbler. 

Brewster, p. 371, saw two or three on Anticosti. 

f 28. Dendroica palmarum hypochrysea (Ridgw.). 
Red-poll Warbler. 

A specimen was obtained by Drexler at Moose Fac- 
tory in July, i860. 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 55, found them plentiful in Labra- 
dor. Young seen in August. 

f 29. Seiurus atirocapillus (Linn.). Golden-crowned 
Thrush. 

Stearns, p. 116, records this species as breeding in 
Southern Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 371, saw a pair at Ellis Bay, Anticosti, 
July 21. 

Verrill, p. 137, obtained specimens at Anticosti, July 
15, 1861. 

f 30. Seiurus noveboracensis (Gmel.). Small-billed 
Water Thrush. 

Several individuals, young of the year among them, 
were procured by me at Davis Inlet in August, 1884. 

A specimen was procured at Moose Factory, May 
26, i860, by Drexler. 

31. Geothlypis trichas (Linn.). Maryland Yellow- 
throat. 

Common in southern portions of Labrador. 

Stearns, p. 116, reports it from Natashquan. 

Brewster, p. 371, found it at Fox Bay, Anticosti 
July II. 



BIRDS. 415 

f 32, Sylvaiiia ptisilla (Wils.). Black-capped Yel- 
low Warbler. 

Audubon, vol. ii., p. 21, records it as breeding in Lab- 
rador, and a nest obtained. 

Brewster, p. 371, records it from Anticosti. 

t 33. Sylvania canadensis (Linn.). Canadian Warb- 
ler. 

Audubon, vol. ii, p. 15, reports it as breeding in Lab- 
rador. 

f 34. Setophaga ruticilla (Linn.). American Red- 
^start 

Verrill, p. 137, records it as breeding on Anticosti, 
with young ones just able to fly, July 18, 1861. 

A specimen was obtained by James McKenzie at 
Rupert House, September 3, i860. 

Brewster, p. 372, records it from Ellis and Fox Bays, 
Anticosti, and from Mingan, on the south shore of Lab- 
rador. 

35. Vireo olivacetis (Linn.). Red-eyed Vireo. 
Verrill, p. 138, reports it as common on Anticosti. 

36. Vireo philadelp hints (Cass.). Philadelphia Vireo. 
Individual obtained from Moose Factory, June 2, 

i860, by Drexler. 

37. Vireo noveboracensis (Gmel.). White-eyed 
Vireo. Audubon, vol. iv., p. 148, states that a few were 
seen in Labrador. [Audubon was probably mistaken, 
Labrador being beyond the known range of this 
species,] 

* f 38. Laimis dorealis Yie'iW. Great Northern Shrike. 

Not common at Fort Chimo. Breeds there. Young, 
unable to fly more than a few rods, were taken by the 
hand at that place, June 30, 1884. Said to be common 



4l6 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

in the more southern portions, and there known as the 
" Silky Jay." 

39. Ampelis cedrorttm (Vieill.). Cedar Wax-wing. 

Specimen obtained August 26, i860, by Drexler, at 
Moose Factory. 

f 40. Petrochelidon lunifrons (Say). Cliff Swallow. 

Verrill, p. 137, reports it breeding in large numbers, 
July 15, 1861, on Anticosti. 

f 41. Chelidon erythrogaster (Bodd.). Barn Swal- 
low. 

Breeds at Northwest River, at the head of Hamilton 
Inlet. 

f 42. Tachycineta bicolor (Vieill). White-bellied 
Swallow. 

Common at "Big" Island, in the Koksoak River, near 
Fort Chimo, where it breeds abundantly. Abundant 
throughout the northern portions. 

Brewster, p. 372, saw two at Anticosti, June 9. 

f 43. Clivicola riparia (Linn.). Bank Swallow. 

Audubon, vol. i., p. 189, states that it rarely begins to 
breed before June, and lays only once. Said to be plen- 
tiful on south shore of Labrador. 

Verrill, p. 138, reports it plentiful on Anticosti. 

'^' f 44. Pinicola emicleator (Linn.). Pi-ne Grosbeak. 

Abundant in summer only, at Fort Chimo ; breeds 
there ; nest and eggs obtained. 

Plentiful in southern districts among the timbered 
tracts. Resident south of the " Height of Land." 
This bird is known as the " M(.[)e." 

45. Carpodacus purpureus (Gm.). Purple Finch. 

Kumlien, p. 75, obtained one on shipboard off Resolu- 
tion Island. 



BIRDS. 417 

Drexler obtained it at Moose Factory, May 28, i860. 
Occurs plentifully in southern portions. 

* t 46. Loxia Leucuptera Gmel. White-winged Cross- 
bill. 

Abundant at Fort Chimo in winter, rare during other 
winters. None observed in summer. Birds of the year 
arQ taken in early winter. Breeds in central portions 
and resident there. 

47. Acanthis ho7-nemanm (YioVo.). Mealy Redpoll. 

Very abundant in winter. Not occurring in summer 
from May 15 to September i of each year. 

* + 48. AcantJiis Jiorne77ianni exilipes (Coues), 
White-rumped Redpoll. 

Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort 
Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained. 

* f 49. Acanthis linaria (Linn.). Common Redpoll. 
Abundant and resident. Breeds plentifully at Fort 
Chimo, where nests and eggs were obtained. 

50. Acanthis linaria rostrata (Coues). Greater Red- 
poll. 

Rather common in winter. None to be seen from 
May 15 to September i of each year. 

51. Spinus tristis (Linn.). American Goldfinch. 
Kumlien, p. 76, caught an adult male on shipboard off 

Cape Mugford, August 22, 1877. 

Occurs in southern portions of Labrador. 

A bird called " Goldfinch" was described accurately, 
and asserted to occur occasionally at Fort Chimo, but I 
did not succeed in finding it. 

52. Spin7Ls pinus (Wils.). Pine Goldfinch. 
Recorded by Audubon, vol. iii., p. 126, as common. 
Brewster, p. 373, saw a flock, July 24, on Anticosti. 



4l8 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

* t 53- Plectrophe7tax nivalis (Linn.). Snow Bunting. 

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Breeds on the islands in 
Ungava Bay and occasionally on the mainland. Resident 
in the southern portions of Labrador. 

f 54 Calcaj'ius lapponicus (Linn.). Lapland Long- 
spur. 

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Breeds near the mouth of the 
Koksoak River and on the larger islands in Ungava Bay. 

f 55. Ammodraimts sandwichensis savanna (Wils.). 
Savannah Sparrow. 

Common throughout the region. Breeds at the mouth 
of the Koksoak River and at Davis Inlet. 

•f 56. Zonotrichia leitcophrys (Forst.). White- 
crowned Sparrow. 

Very plentiful throughout the country. Breeds 
abundantly at Fort Chimo. 

f 57. Zonotrichia albicollis (Gmel.). White-throated 
Sparrow. 

Reported by Stearns, p. 117, as common and breed- 
inof in Southern Labrador. 

Audubon, vol iii., p. 154, states that this species is 
common, and that he saw young late in July. 

Drexler obtained this species at Moose Factory, May 
31, i860. 

Verrill, p. 138, reports this species as by far the most 
common singing bird at Anticosti. 

f 58. Spizella monticola (Gmel.). Tree Sparrow. 

Common throughout the entire country. Breeds plen- 
tifully at Fort Chimo, where eggs and nests were taken. 

t 59- Junco hyemalis (Linn.). Black Snowbird. 

Not observed in the Ungava district. Common in 
the eastern and southern portions of Labrador. Breeds 



BIRDS. 419 

at Davis Inlet and Rigolet. Known as the " Stone 
Chat " on the east coast. 

f 60. Melospiza lincolni (Aud.). Lincoln's Finch. 

Rare at Fort Chimo ; a male obtained June 10, 1883. 
Common in southern portions, 

Audubon, vol. iii., p. 117, found young July 4, 1833. 

Drexler procured specimens at Moose Factory, May 
.22i, i860. 

61. Melospiza georgiana (Lath.). Swamp Sparrow. 

Audubon, vol. iii., p. iii, states it to be abundant in 
Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 375, found it plentiful on Anticosti. 

f 62. Passerella iliaca (Merrem). Fox-colored Spar- 
row. 

Common in southern portions. Young obtained at 
Rigolet late in June and early July, 1882. 

63. Pipilo erythrophthalinus (Linn.). Chewink ; 
Towhee. 

Audubon, vol. iii., p. 168, states that, it occurs north- 
ward to Labrador. [Doubtless an error.] 

f 64. Scolecophagus carolinus (Miill.). Rusty Black- 
bird. 

Common. Breeds at Fort Chimo, where young just 
from the nest were obtained, July 10, 1884. 

* f 65. Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. American 
Raven. 

Abundant throughout the region. Breeds at Fort 
Chimo; nearly fledged young seen in nest May 18. 

66, Corvus americanus Aud. Common Crow. 

Rare and only found in southern portions. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 89, states few were to be seen in 
Labrador. 



420 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Coues, p. 226, saw one flying. 
Stearns, p. 117, reports it from Eskimo River. 
Verrill, p. 138, records it as very common on Anti- 
costi. Not known to breed in Labrador. 

* f 67. Perisoreus canadensis (Linn,). Canada Jay. 
Plentiful in interior of southern and westen portions. 

Breeds and resident wherever found. 

* f 68. Perisoreus canadensis nigricapillus (Ridgw.). 
Coastwise and interior especially abundant. Resident. 

and breeds at Fort Chimo. 

f 69. Otocoris alpestris (Linn.). Shore Lark. 

Common. Breeds at the mouth of the Koksoak River 
and at Rigolet. 

f 70. Tyrannus tyrannus (Linn.). Kingbird ; Bee 
Martin. 

Audubon, vol. i., p. 207, found it breeding in Labrador. 

71. Contopus borealis (Swains.). Olive-sided Fly- 
catcher. 

Audubon, vol. i., 215, records it from the coast of 
Labrador. 

f 72. Contoptts rickardsoni (Sw2i\ns.^. Western Wood 
Pewee. 

Audubon, vol. i., p. 220, states that he found it breed- 
ing in Labrador. [This was erroneously entered in Mr. 
Turner's list as '' Sayornis phcebe (Lath.). Phoebe 
Bird."] 

73. Contopus virens (Linn.). Wood Pewee. 
Audubon, vol. i., p. 233, records it [probably erro- 
neously] from Labrador. 

74. Empidonax Jiaviventris Baird. Yellow-bellied 
Flycatcher. 

Brewster, p. 380, reports it common at Ellis Bay^ 
Anticosti. 



BIRDS. 421 

•f 75o Bmpzdonax minimus Baird. Least Flycatcher, 
• Audubon, vol. i., p. 237, found it nesting in Labrador. 

Obtained by Drexler at Moose Factory, May 30, i860. 

76. Trochilus colubris Uinn. Ruby-throated Hum- 
ming-bird. 

A single individual, male, was seen within 4 feet of 
me July 17, 1882, on the hill-top (825 feet elevation) 
back of the station at Davis Inlet. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 195, states that few were seen in 
Labrador. 

J J. Chordeiles virginiamis (Gmel.). Nighthawk. 

Stearns, p. 117, records it from Natashquan. 

Obtained by Drexler in August, i860, at Moose 
Factory. 

■^ f 78. Dryobates villosus leucomelas i^odidi?). Hairy 
Woodpecker. 

Resident in southern portions of Labrador ; probably 
■does not occur north of the " Height of Land." 

* f 79. Dryobates pztbf,scens (Linn.).. Downy Wood- 
pecker. 

Common and resident in southern portions ; probably 
does not range north of 56°. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 249, reports it from Texas to 
Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 381, found it breeding at Fox Bay, Anti- 
costi, July ri. 

* f 80. Picoides arciiczcs (Swains.). Black-backed 
Three-toed Woodpecker. 

Common and resident throughout tiic wooded por- 
tions. 

■^ f 81. Picoides americayius Brehm. Banded-backed 
Three-toed Woodpecker. 



422 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Common and resident throughout the wooded por- 
tions. 

f 82. Colaptes auratus (Linn.). Yellow-shafted 
Flicker. 

An accidental straggler was procured from the main- 
land near Akpatok Island, Hudson Strait, in October, 
1882. Reported to be a common summer visitor to- 
Northwest River. 

f Z-^. Ceryle alcyon (Linn.). Belted Kingfisher. 

Asummer visitor to Northwest River, where it breeds. 

Drexler obtained a specimen. May 26, i860, at Moose 
Factory. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 208, records that he has met 
with it from Texas to Labrador. 

84. Coccyzus americamts (Linn.). Yellow-billed 
Cuckoo. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 296, states that even in Labrador 
he has met with a few of them [ — a statement requiring 
confirmation]. 

85. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus (Wils.). Black-billed 
Cuckoo. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 301, states that they saw a few 
in clumps of low trees a few miles from the shore of the 
gulf. (The text evidently refers to Labrador.) 

^^ ? f 86. Asio accipitrinus (Pall.). Short-eared Owl. 

Common in summer only at Fort Chimo. Specimens 
obtained there and at Davis Inlet. A very light-colored 
individual was seen, July 18, 1882, at Davis Inlet. 
Downy young individual was obtained at Fort Chimo. 
Plentiful on the east shore of Hudson Bay. Not known 
to winter in the Ungava district. 

87. Scotiaptex cinerea (Gmel). Great Gray Owk 



BIRDS. 423 

Specimen (No. 32306 5 ) in the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion collection was obtained by James McKenzie at Moose 
Factory. No record from other parts of the country. 

88. Nyctala acadica (Gmel.). Saw-whet Owl. 

Specimen (No. 32301) in Smithsonian Institution 
was obtained at Moose Factory by James McKenzie. 

* f 89. Bubo virginiamis saturatus Ridgw. ^ Dusky 
Horned Owl. 

Not rare at Fort Chimo. Resident. Downy young 
obtained June 20, 1884. 

* f 90. Nyctea nydea (Linn.). Snowy Owl. 
Common throughout the country. Breeds at Fort 

Chimo. 

* t 91. Surnia tclicla caparoch (Mlill.). American 
Hawk Owl. 

Rare at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained June 8, 1884, 
and downy young nearly ready to leave the nest were 
taken June 20. 

* f 92. Falco isla7}dus Briinn. White Gyrfalcon. 
Common at Fort Chimo and east coast of Labrador. 

Resident. in northern portions, breeds at Fort Chimo. 

f 93. Falco rusticolus Linn. Iceland Gyrfalcon. 

Winter specimens only obtained at Fort Chimo. 
Not known to breed in the Ungava district. 

* f 94. Falco 7^tcstzcohis obsolehcs {Gme\.^. Labrador 
Gyrfalcon. 

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs obtained May 24. 
Young and adult specimens of this bird procured. Very 
rare in winter at Fort Chimo. 

f 95. Falco peregi'inus anatum (Bon.). American 
Peregrine Falcon ; Duck Hawk. 

Abundant at Fort Chimo. Eggs, downy young, and 



424 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

adults taken there. Does not pass the winter in the 
Unofava district. 

f 96. Falco columbarius Linn. Pigeon Hawk. 

Audubon, vol, i., p. 89, states that eggs and nest were 
found about June i. 

Coues, p. 216, met with it on two occasions; one at 
Groswater Bay on August 5, and on the 25th of August 
■'' Henley Harbor. 

97. Falco sparverius Linn. Sparrow Hawk. 

Coues, p. 216, saw a single individual in Labrador. 

f 98. Pandion haliaetus carolinensis {Q:vc\.). American 
Osprey ; Fish Hawk. 

Mr. John Ford assured me that the Fish Hawk breeds, 
four or five pairs of them, about 4 miles above the 
station of the Hudson Bay Company on Northwest 
River. 

Nuctall, page 81, reports it from Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 382. records that few were seen at Anti- 
costi. 

99. Circus hudsonius (Linn.). Marsh Hawk. 
Audubon, vol. i., p. 105, saw it in Labrador. 

100. Accipite7' velox (Wils.). Sharp-shinned Hawk. 
Richardson, vol. ii., p. 44, states that one was killed 

near Moose Factory and deposited by the Hudson Bay 
Company in the museum of London. 

Verrill, p. 137, reports having seen this species near 
Salmon River, July 3, 1861. 

* f 10 1. Accipiter atricapillus (Wils.). American 
Goshawk. 

Resident in Ungava district. Winter specimen ob- 
tained in early December, 1882. Breeds at the " Chapel " 



BIRDS. 425 

near Fort Chimo. Specimen obtained from Rigolet. 
Known as " Partridge Hawk." 

102. Bttteo latissimus (Wils.). Broad-winged Hawk. 

Specimen (No. 33209 3 ) in Smithsonian Institution 
^collected by James McKenziein 1862 at Moose Factory. 

f 103. Arckibuteo lagopzis sancti-johannis (Gmel.). 
American Rough-legged Hawk. 

Both light and dark phases, with their eggs, young, 
and adults, collected at Fort Chimo. Apparently more 
abundant on eastern and northern shores than on the 
southern portions of Labrador. Downy young were 
also obtained, of the black phase, July 17, 1882, at Davis 
Inlet. Termed " Squalling Hawk" by the planters. 

f 104. AqiLila chrysaetos (Linn.). Golden Eagle. 

Specimens procured in Ungava district. Breeds in 
the northeastern portions among the hills. A pair also 
breed at the " Forks" in the Ungava district. The 
Eagles are termed "Grepe" by the planters, and is a 
word derived from some of the earlier Scandinavian 
settlers on the coast who apply the term Grepe to a 
Vulture. 

f 105. Halicsetus leucocephalus (\J\x^w?). Bald Eagle; 
Gray Eagle. 

Nuttall, p. 75, records it as breeding and rearing its 
young in all the intermediate space from Nova Scotia 
or Labrador to the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 

106. Ectopistes migratorius (Linn.). Passenger 
Pigeon. 

Specimen obtained August 16, i860, by C. Drexler, 
at Moose Factory. 

Verrill, p. 138, saw a single individual at Heath 



426 THE ZOOLOGY OF THIi LABRADOR COAST. 

Point, Anticosti, and was informed that they are very 
rare there. 

* f 107. Dendragapiis caiiadensis (Linn.). Canada. 
Grouse ; Spruce Partridge. 

Abundant throughout the wooded tracts. Resident. 
Eggs, downy young, and adults procured at Fort Chimo. 

* f 108. Bonasa timbellus togata (Linn.). Ruffed 
Grouse.. 

Occurs rarely at the head of Hamilton Inlet, but only 
on the south side ; lather common at Paradise River, 
flowing into Sandwich Bay, and abundantly in the val- 
leys to the southward, where birch grows plentifully.. 
These birds are known as " French Hens." 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 80, reports it as common from 
Maryland to Labrador. 

* f 109. Lagopus lagopus (Linn.). Willow Ptarmi- 
gan. 

Exceedingly abundant throughout the country. 
Breeds by thousands at Fort Chimo, where eggs, adults^, 
and young in all stages were procured. 

* t 110. Lagopus rupestris {^\i\.^. Rock Ptarmigan. 
Plentiful everywhere on the treeless areas. Eggs^ 

young in all stages, and adults were procured from vari- 
ous places. 

III. Ardea herodias Linn. Great Blue Heron. 

An individual was seen by Mr. John Saunders (of the 
Hudson ,Bay Company) to fly from the creek which is 
the outlet of Whitefish Lake, near Fort Chimo, in the 
summer of 1880. A specimen was obtained at Moose 
Factory by James McKenzie, August 29, i860. 

Verrill, p. 138, states that a large Heron, which ap- 



BIRDS. 427- 

peared to be of this species, was seen at Ellis Bay, Anti- 
costi. 

f 112. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montag.). American. 
Bittern. 

According to Coues, p. 227, a wing of a Bittern was 
seen in the possession of a native at Rigolet (?). 

Drexler found it breeding at Moose Factory, and ob- 
tained specimens August 29, 186-. 

Verrill, p. 138, records it as common at Anticosti. A. 
young one, just able to fly, was caught August 4. 

f 113. HcBmatopus palliatus Temm. American- 
Oystercatcher. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 237, found several breeding in 
Labrador. 

f 114. Arenaria interpres (Linn.). Turnstone. 

Occasional at Ungava Bay. A young bird of the year 
was obtained there in the middle of September, 1882,- 
and an adult at Davis Inlet. Not rare on the east coast. 

115. Charadrius squatai'-ola (Linn.). Black-bellied, 
Plover. 

Stearns, p. 118, reports it plentiful in South Labrador.. 
Not observed in the Ungava district. Not breeding. 

116. Charadrius dominictis Mtill. American Golden 
Plover. 

Occurs, in fall only, at the mouth of the Koksoak. 
Common in the southern and western portions near the 
coast. Not known to breed there. 

f 1 1 7. y^gialitis semipalmata Bonap. Semipal- 
mated Plover. 

Occurs abundantly throughout the coast region. 
Eggs, downy young, and adults obtained from Ungava^ 



428 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

and downy young with their parents obtained from 
Davis Inlet. Known as " Beach Bird " in Labrador. 

1 1 8. Philohela minor (Gmel.). American Wood- 
cock. 

Several persons assured me that they had killed wood- 
cocks on the eastern portions of the Labrador shore. 

f 119. Gallinago delicata (Ord.). Wilson's Snipe. 

I heard and saw a male making the peculiar noise 
with its wings, in early June, over a swamp to the north 
of Davidson's Lake, a few miles from Fort Chimo. 
Specimens were procured, June 15, i860, by Drexler, at 
Rupert House. 

Coues, p. 229, met with a single specimen. 

120. Macrorhamphiis griseus (Gmel.). Red-breasted 
Snipe ; Gray Snipe. 

Rare at Fort Chimo. Common in southern and 
western portions. Specimens obtained at Fort Chimo 
and Davis Inlet. 

121. Tringa camthts Linn. Knot ; Robin Snipe. 
Audubon, vol. v., p. 256, states that it ranges along 

the coast from Texas to Labrador, but does not record 
having met with it in the latter country. 

Coues, p. 229, obtained at Henley Harbor a few spe- 
cimens in immature plumage. 

122. Tringa maritima Briinn. Purple Sandpiper. 
Although I can find no record of the occurrence of 

this species in Labrador, yet it abounds on the Atlantic 
coasts to the north and south of Labrador in spring and 
fall. 

f 123. Tringa maculata YieiW. Pectoral Sandpiper. 

Common almost everywhere on the coast. Specimens 



BIRDS. 42gt 

procured by Coues, p. 230; Stearns, p. 119, and by my- 
self. 

124. Tringa fuscicollis Vieill. Bonaparte's Sand- 
piper. 

Excessively abundant at the mouth of the Koksoak 
River in July, August, and September ; also on the 
eastern shore of Labrador. Not known to breed in the 
country. 

f 125. Tringa ininutilla Vieill. Least Sandpiper. 

Not common at Ungava. I have reason to believe 
that occasional pairs breed at the mouth of the Koksoak 
River. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 282, states that he found nest 
and eggs, July 20, 1883, in Labrador. 

Coues, p. 232, observed it to be plentiful in Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 386, observed a few daily on the beach 
at Anticosti. 

Stearns, p. 119, records it common in spring and fall, 
and breeds in summer. 

f 126. Ereunetes pitsillus (Linn.). Semipalmated 
Sandpiper. 

Occurs sparingly at the mouth of the Koksoak River, 
and from its actions indicated breeding. 

Audubon, vol. v., p, 278, states he found them dis- 
persed in pairs and having nests early in June in Lab- 
rador. 

Stearns, p. 119, reports this species as common in 
spring and fall. 

127. Calidris arenaria {yXxvci^. Sanderling. 

Three individuals were seen at the mouth of the Kok- 
soak River associated with Triitga fuscicollis. Two of 
these were obtained. 



430 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 288, states he saw young in Lab- 
rador early in August, 1833, moving southward. 

128. Limosa Ji(^niastica{\J\x\x\.^. Hudsonian Godwit. 

Rare. Drexler obtained a specimen near Rupert 
House, July 30, i860. 

Stearns, p. 119, obtained a single individual at Old 
Fort Island. 

f 129, Totanus inelanoleucus (Gmel.). Greater Yel- 
low-legs ; Tell-tale. 

Not common in Ungava district. Specimens obtained 
at the mouth of the Koksoak River and only in the fall. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 319, states he found this species 
breeding in June in Labrador. 

130. Totanus flavipes (Gmel). Yellow-legs. 

A single individual was seen October 8 about 50 
miles above Fort Chimo, on the Koksoak River, flying 
from a bar. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 313, states he found few of these 
birds in Labrador. 

f 131. Tolafuis solitariits (Wils.). Solitary Sand- 
piper. 

A single individual was obtained near Fort Chimo in 
July. Its actions indicated breeding. 

132. Tryiigites sith'-iificollis (Vieill). Buff-breasted 
Sandpiper. 

Coues, p. 235, obtained a single individual August 20, 
i860. 

f 133. Actitis maculaiHa (Linn.). Spotted Sand- 
piper. 

Common at Fort Chimo, where downy young and 
adults were procured. 

Audubon, vol. v., p. 303, states he found it breeding 



BIRDS. 431 

in Labrador, July 17, 1833, and obtained fully-fledged 
young July 29. 

134. Numenius longirostris Wils. Long-billed Cur- 
lew. 

Most diligent inquiry failed to satisfy me that this 
species occurs on the north, east, or southern portions 
of Labrador. Coues apparently satisfied himself, from 
inquiry, that the bird does occur there, vide p. 235. 

135. JVumenius hudsonzcus l^diXh. Hudsonian Curlew. 
I saw three individuals of this species in September, 

1882, at the mouth of the Koksoak. 

Coues, p. 235, procured a few individuals. 

136. NumeniMs borealis (Forst.). Eskimo Curlew. 

Several large flocks were seen September 4, 1884, fly- 
ing over the mouth of the Koksoak River. Plentiful in 
the fall in the southern portions and as far north as 
Davis Inlet ; they do not halt above this latter place 
while on their way southward. 

f 137. Crymophilus fulicarius {\j\x\Vi^. Red Phala- 
,rope. 

Abundant on the Labrador coast north of Davis Inlet. 
Common in Hudson Strait. Rare in Ungava Bay, 
where a specimen was obtained. Breeds sparingly in 
Hudson Strait. 

f 138. Phalai^opus lobatus (Linn.). Northern Phala- 
rope. 

Breeds on the islets in Ungava Bay. Common on 
northern portions of the Labrador coast. 

139. Rallus vwginianus Linn. Virginian Rail. 

A single specimen was taken in Hamilton Inlet a few 
years ago and submitted to M. Fortesque, Esq. (of the 



432 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Hudson Bay Company), who identified it beyond ques- 
tion. 

140. Porzana Carolina (Linn.). Sora Rail. 
Obtained by Drexler, August 26, i860, at Moose 

Factory. 

141. Fulica americana Gmel. American Coot. 

A specimen was shot on a lake near Nain several 
years ago. Several persons who saw the stuffed bird 
described this species beyond possibility of doubt. 

142. Olor colitmbianus (Ord). Whistling Swan. 

An occasional straggler over the southern portions 
only of Labrador. The Eskimo of the western side and 
northern end of the region apply the name Koogzhook 
to this bird, and is exactly the same name as is given to 
it by the Eskimo of Norton Sound, Alaska. 

143. Chen hyperborea nivalis (Forst.). Greater Snow 
Goose. 

Occasionally a straggler is seen in the western portions 
and along the western end of Hudson Strait. Eskimo 
from the eastern shore of Hudson Bay reported it to be 
very plentiful during the migration. Those people ap- 
ply the term Kangok to this species, and what is rare 
among the names of birds is, that the same term is ap- 
plied to this species by the Eskimo of Norton Sound, 
Alaska. 

f 144. Branta canadensis (Linn.). Canada Goose. 

Common throughout the territory. Breeds along 
Hudson Strait near the mouth of St. George's River, 
where eggs, young, and adults, were procured. 

Breeds plentifully on Anticosti, according to Verrill, 

P- 139- 

145. Branta bernicla (Linn.). Brant. 



BIRDS. 433 

Seen in spring only at Fort Chimo. Not known to 
breed in the region. 

Audubon, vol. vi., p. 205, states that it breeds from 
J^abrador northward. 

146. Anas boschas (Linn.). Mallard. 

Rare at Fort Chimo. Common on eastern and more 
plentiful on southeast coast. Specimens obtained from 
Davis Inlet and at the mouth of the Koksoak River; 
known in Labrador as Mallard and Green Head. 

f 147. Anas obscura (Gm^\.^. Black Mallard. 

Not common in Hudson Strait. Doubtless breeds 
there, as a female obtained in July had the abdomen 
bare and no quills in the wings. 

Audubon, vol. iv., p. 246, found eggs and young Jul)r 

Verrill, p. 139, states that it breeds abundantly on An- 
ticosti. 

f 148. Ajtas strepera (Linn.). Gadwall. 

Not observed in Hudson Strait. 

Verrill, p. 139. states that few specimens were seen on 
Anticosti, and a half-grown young one was caught near 
the middle of July. 

149. Anas americana (Gmel). Baldpate. 

Mr. John Ford assures me that the Widgeon is com- 
mon in Hamilton Inlet and on the southeast shore of 
Labrador. 

150. Anas discors {LavlW?). Blue-winged Teal. 
Brewster, p. 389, records that fishermen report its oc- 
currence at Anticosti. 

\^\. Anas crecca {Lav^w^. English Teal. 
Coues, p. 238, obtained a male in Labrador, July 23, 
i860. 



434 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

152. Anas carolinensis {Qfvc\€[.). Green-winged Teal. 
Fully-fledged young females were obtained at Fort 

Chimo late in July. 

Coues, p. 238, saw it in a collection at Rigolet. 

153. Dajila acuta {L,\r\r\.). Pintail. 

A single (young of the year) female was taken at the 
mouth of the Koksoak River. An adult was procured 
at Davis Inlet. It is very doubtful that this species 
breeds in the Ungava district. 

154. Aix sponsa (Linn.). Wood Duck ; Summer 
Duck. 

Stearns, p. 120, reports it not rare in the interior of 
Labrador. 

155. Aythya ajueincana (Eyt.). Redhead. 
Stearns, p. 120, reports it as common, and saw an in- 
dividual, September 20, in Baie des Roches. 

156. Glattcionetta islandica (Gmel.). Barrow's 
Golden-eye. 

Obtained specimens from Davis Inlet. Plentiful in 
the fall on the Labrador coast. 

157. Glaucionetta clangula americana (Bp.). Ameri- 
can Golden-eye. 

Specimens were obtained from Ungava Bay, where it 
is abundant in fall, as it is also on the Labrador coast. 

158. Histrionicus histrionic2ts (Linn.). Harlequin 
Duck. 

Abundant in Hudson Strait. Specimens from Un- 
o-ava Bay, where this duck certainly breeds. Plentiful 
on the eastern coast of Labrador. 

f 159. Clangula hyemalis (Linn.). Long-tailed 
Duck ; Old Squaw. 

Abundant in the proper season along the entire coast. 



* BIRDS. 435 

Eggs, downy young, and adults were procured at Fort 
Chi mo. 

1 60 Camptolaimus labradorius (Gmel.). Labrador 
Duck. 

Formerly abundant. Now supposed to be extinct. 

* f 161. Somateria mollissima borealis Brehm. 
Common Eider. 

Abundant in Hudson Strait. Eggs, young of the 
year, and adults procured in Ungava Bay, Plentiful on 
•eastern and southern coasts, 

'^' f 162. Somateria dresseri Sharpe. American Eider. 

Common on south shore of Labrador. 

* f 163. Somateria spectabilis (Linn.). King Eider. 
Abundant on Atlantic coast of Labrador, where it is 

Teported to breed. Nest and eggs were found by N. A. 
Comeau near Mingan {vide Canadian Naturalist and 
Sportsman, vol. i., No. 7, p. 51, July 15, 1881), Not 
known to enter Hudson Strait. 

164. Oidemia americana Sw. & Rich. American 
Scoter. 

Obtained at the mouth of the Koksoak River. Abun- 
dant in Hudson Strait and eastern shore of Labrador, 
where it is reported to breed sparingly. 

f 165. Oidemia deglandi Bonap. American Velvet 
Scoter. 

Obtained from the eastern shore of Labrador. Com- 
mon along all the coast. 

The CE.fusca of Audubon, vol. vi., p. 333, doubtless 
refers to this species, and he reports it as common. 
I^esting and young able to swim from June i to July 28. 

f 166. Oidemia per spicillat a (Linn.). Surf Duck. 



436 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Rare in Hudson Strait. Abundant on tlie eastern 
coast of Labrador, where it breeds sparingly. 

167. Merganser americanus (Cass.). American Shel- 
drake. 

Stearns, p. 121, reports he has seen one individual of 
this species near Fort Island. This is probably the " Pie 
bird" that I heard of on the Labrador coast. 

* f 168. Merganser serrator (Linn.). Red-breasted 
Sheldrake. 

Abundant throughout the country. Breeds. Downy 
young, unfledged young, and adults were procured at 
Uneava and Davis Inlet. Known as " Shell bird" on 
the Labrador coast. 

169. Lophodytes cucullatus (Linn.). Hooded Shel- 
drake. 

Stearns, p. 121, records it as rather rare, but occa- 
sional in Southern Labrador. 

f 170. Phalacrocorax carbo (\ax\x\.^. Common Cor- 
morant. 

Not observed in Hudson Strait. Plentiful, and breed- 
insf alonpf the eastern and southern coasts. 

f 171. Phalacrocorax dilophus (Svv. & Rich.). 
Double-crested Cormorant. 

Plentiful, and breeding along the eastern and southern 
coasts. Not observed in Hudson Strait. 

f 172. Sttla bassana (Linn.). Gannet. 

Abundant and breeding on southeast and southern 
shores of Labrador. 

173. Gavia alba {QfMWW^. Ivory Gull. 

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 150, records it from south shore 
of Labrador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. 

* f 174. Rissa tridactyla (Linn.). Kittiwake Gull. 



BIRDS. 437 

Breeds plentifully on the northern portions of the 
Atlantic coast of Labrador. 

Brewster, p. 398, found young on Anticosti. Occurs 
but rarely in Hudson Strait. One individual was seen 
over 100 miles up the Koksoak River, October 13, 1883. 

Verrill, p. 141, reports them breeding in immense 
numbers on the eastern and northern shores of Anticosti. 

f 175. Larus glaucus Briinn. Glaucous Gull; Bur- 
gomaster. 

Not rare in Hudson Strait. Not known to breed 
there. Breeds plentifully on the eastern and southern 
coasts of Labrador. 

176. Lartis leucopterus Faber. White-winged Gull. 

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 159, states that few were seen 
in Labrador. 

f 177. Larus marinus Linn. Great Black-backed 
Gull. 

Not observed in Hudson Strait. 

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 174, reports, it common and 
breeding on Labrador coast. 

Coues, p. 244, obtained young, a few days old, at 
Sloop Harbor, June 4, i860. 

Brewster, p. 395, found young of few days old on 
Anticosti. 

Known as the " Saddler " or "Saddle-back" on the 
coast. 

f 1 78. Larus argentatus smithsonianus Coues. Amer- 
can Herring Gull. 

Excessively abundant in Hudson Strait, where eggs, 
young, and adults were obtained. Common on the 
Atlantic coast of Labrador. 

f 1 79, Larus delawarensis Ord. Ring-billed Gull. 



438 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Coues, p. 246, obtained three young of the year at 
Henley Harbor, August 21, i860. 

180. Lar Its Philadelphia (Ord.). Bonaparte's Gull. 
Coues, p. 247, saw immature birds. 

Stearns, p. 122, reports it to be abundant in fall on the 
southern coast. Not known to breed in any part of 
Labrador. 

181. Xema sabinei {^dh?). Sabine's Gull. 

A single male was obtained in the middle of July,. 
1884, near the mouth of George's River, flowing into 
the eastern side of Un^ava Bay. 

182. Sterna tschegTava Lepch. Caspian Tern. 

An individual was obtained by James McKenzie at 
Moose Factory. 

f 183. Sterna hirundo Linn. Common Tern. 

Audubon, vol. vii., p. 100, reports it breeding in Lab- 
rador. 

f 184. Sterna paradise a Briinn. Arctic Tern. 

Breeds plentifully on islets in Ungava Bay ; young of 
the year and adults and eggs were procured there. 
Abundant on the other coasts of the country. Known 
as the " Rittick" at Ungava ; an Orkney Isle word. 

185. Sterna antillaruni (Less.). Least Tern. 
Audubon, vol. vii., p. 119, reports it abundant and 

breeding on western (southern) shore of Labrador. 

186. Megalestris skua {^xm\Xi^. Skua Gull. 

A single individual was seen near the vessel, sitting in 
the water off the north side of the Strait of Belle Isle^ 
June 22, 1882. 

187. Stercorarius pomarinus (Temm.). Pomarine 
Jaeger. 

One was shot by Coues, p. 243. 



BIRDS. 439 

1 88. Stercorarius parasiticus (Linn.). Parasitic 
Jaeger. 

Coues, p. 243, records having seen this species in Lab- 
rador. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. 

189. Stei'corarius longicaudits Vieill. Long- tailed 
Jaeger. 

A single individual was obtained in Ungava Bay in 
the early part of July. Several were seen. Brewster, p. 
395, saw a single individual July 20, near Mingan Har- 
bor. 

f 190. Ful77ia7ms glacialis (Linn.). Fulmar Petrel. 

Not observed in Hudson Strait. Excessively abun- 
dant fiom Cape Chidley to Strait of Belle Isle. Thou- 
sands were seen in July near the former locality. 

191. Piiffintis kuJilii (Boie). Cinereous Shearwater. 
Kumlein, p. 102, reports it common from Belle Isle 

to Grinnell Bay. 

[This species is regarded as doubtfully North Ameri- 
can. No American specimen is known to be extant.] 

192. Puffi^ius major Faber. Greater Shearwater. 
Kumlein, p. 102,, reports it from Belle Isle to Resolu- 

ion Island. 

193. Puffi7tiis stricklandi Ridgw. Sooty Shearwater. 
Coues, p. 243, states that he saw, on August 19, i860, 

few of this species with individuals of P. major. 

194. Pi'-vcellaria pelagica Linn. Stormy Petrel; 
Mother Carey's Chicken. 

One obtained (middle of July, 1882) 20 miles up the 
Koksoak River. Another was seen 70 miles up that 
river, October 9, 1882. 

195. Oceanites oceanicus (Kuhl.). Wilson's Petrel. 



440 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Atlantic coast of Labrador ; observed mostly in spring 
and fall, then plentiful. 

196. CyntochoT-ea Icucoi^rhoa (Vieill.). Leach's Petrel. 
Atlantic coast of Labrador ; observed mostly in spring 

and fall, then abundant. 

197. Colymbtts auritus (Linn.). Horned Grebe. 

A singfle Grebe was seen in a tide cool at the mouth of 
the Koksoak River, September 15. 1882. I will not un- 
dertake to assert what species it was, as it appeared to 
be a bird of the year. Stearns, p. 132, reports Podiceps 
holbolli as " not rare in spring and fall. Occasionally 
breeds." The individual seen by me may have been of 
this species, 

* f 198. Uinnator imber (Gunn.). Loon. 

Occurs in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of 
Labrador. Specimens procured from Davis Inlet and 
Rigolet. 

199. Urinator arcticus (Linn.). Black-throated 
Diver. 

Stearns, p. 122, records that two specimens were pro- 
cured off the Labrador coast by one of the French 
priests at Bersimis. One in 1880. 

f 200. Urinator lumme (Gunn.). Red-throated 
Diver. 

Very plentiful throughout the county. Eggs, downy 
young, and adults were procured at Ungava. Known in 
Labrador as " Waby." 

201. Plait ties iinpennis (Linn.). Great Auk. 

Supposed to have formerly occurred on the Labrador 
coast. Undoubtedly extinct now. 

f 202. Alca tarda Linn. Razor-billed Auk. 



BIRDS. 441 

Not observed in Hudson Strait. Abundant on east- 
ern and southern shores, where it breeds plentifully. 

f 203. Fratercula arctica (Linn.). Common Puffin. 

Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador, 
where it breeds. Not known to enter Hudson Strait. 

* f 204. Alle alle (Linn.). Sea Dove ; Dovekie. 
Common in Hudson Strait. Winter (December 19, 

1882) specimen taken 100 miles up the Koksoak River. 
Occurs in myriads along the eastern shore of Labrador. 
Known as the " Bullbird." Breeds plentifully in certain 
localities not visited by me. 

^ f 205. Cepphtts grylle (Linn.). Black Guillemot. 

Common in Hudson Strait, east and south shores of 
Labrador. Breeds wherever found in summer. 

* f 206. Cepphus mandtii (Licht.). Mandt's Guille- 
mot. 

Occurs in Hudson Strait occasionally only, according 
to my own observation. Plentiful on the eastern coast 
of Labrador. Specimens procured at Fort George by 
Drexler, July 17, 1861. Breeds wherever found in sum- 
mer. Known as " Pigeon" or " Sea Pigeon " on the 
eastern coast. 

^ f 207. Uria troile (Linn.). Common Guillemot. 

Plentiful on eastern and southern coast of Labrador. 
Not observed in Hudson Strait. 

■^ f 208. Uria lomvia (Briinn.), Briinnich's Guille- 
mot. 

Obtained only from Hudson Strait, where it breeds. 
Abundant on eastern and southern coasts. 

Besides these species the following was collected by 
Dr. Robert Bell, and recorded by him in the Report of 
the Canadian Geological Survey for 1882-83-84. 



^42 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Procellaria tenuirostris Aud. Slender-billed Fulmar- 
Port Burvvell, 28tb- September. 

Mammals. 

Vesper tilio subulatus Say. Little Brown Bat. Natash- 
quan. (Stearns.) 

Lepus americanus Erxl. (Stearns.) 

Erethizon dorsahim (Linn.). Near Hopedale. 

Fiber zibet hicus Cuv. Henley Harbor. 

Castor canadensis Kuhl. Rapidly becoming extinct 
on the coast. 

Sciuropterus volucella (Pallas). Specimens found at 
St. Augustine. (Stearns.) 

Sciurus hndsoniiis Pallas. "Common in the woods, 
along the southern coast. (Stearns.) 

Arctomys monax (Linn.). ' " Common at Mingan^ 
growing scarce towards Bonne Esperance." (Stearns.) 

Zapus Jiudsonicus (Zimmermann). Not rare on the 
dry tops of many of the islands along the southern coast. 
(Stearns.) 

Hesperomys leucopus (Rafinesque). Not rare.. 
(Stearns.) 

Arvicola sp. (Stearns). 

Balcenopiera. The Fin-back is frequently seen upon 
the coast, 

Balcena mysticetus Linn. The Hump-backeJ Whale 
is commonly seen. This species shows its tail and the 
pale underside of the body when it "breaches"; the 
Fin-back does not show its tail. 

Physeter macrocephalus Linn. For many years the 
fishermen on the coast have noticed a school of nine 



MAMMALS. 44S> 

sperm whales passing up and down the coast. Latel}^ 
the number has been reduced to five, one of which, prob- 
ably, was seen off Domino Harbor, in a large school of 
•* Finners" and "Hump-backs." 

Sibbaldius borealis (Fischer). A Sulphur-bottom 
Whale was towed ashore at Old Fort Island in 1878 or 
1879. (Stearns.) 

Monodon monoceros Linn. While the Narwhal is 
abundant, going in schools, in Hudson's Strait, it had 
not been seen at the Moravian settlements since at least 

1830. 

Delphinapterus catodon (Linn.). The White Whale is 
not uncommonly seen passing in schools along the coast 
in the summer-time. 

Orca gladiator (Bonnaterre). The Killer, which was 
described to me as having the head much shorter and 
blunter, and with longer teeth than the Grampus, from 
which it is easily distinguished by its sharp, dorsal fin, 
five or six feet high, is commonly said, by the fishermen, 
to attack the Right and Finback Whales, " gouging out 
lumps of flesh." At Belles Amours, an individual was 
captured, from whose stomach five shoulders of the seal 
were taken. 

Globicephalus intei^medius (Harlan). The Black-fish, 
or Grampus, abounds on the whole coast. 

Grampus griseus (Cuvier). The Grampus occurs, 
along the coast as far as Belle Isle, and perhaps farther. 

(Stearns.) 

Odobcenus rosmarus (Malm.). Atlantic Walrus. 

Phoca vitulina Linn. Harbor Seal. Ascends the rivers 
into fresh water. 



444 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Phoca foetida Fabr. In harbors in spring and autumn. 
(Stearns.) 

Of the Phoca hispida Erxl, no information could be 
ol)tained. 

Pagophilus groenlandicus Gray. (Phoca groenlandica 
auct.) This species is most abundant and extensively 
hunted by the sealers. The young soon after birth 
weigh 70-80 pounds, while the adult weighs 140-150 
pounds. (Common in migrations all along the shores 
south of Belle Isle.) 

Erignat Jilts barbatus Gill. (Phoca barbata Fabr.). It 
is probably the species which is called by the sealers the 
" Square Flipper." It is very rare, and much the largest 
species known. The young weigh 140-150 pounds, 
while the adult will weigh 500-600 pounds. 

Cystophora cristata Nilsson. The Hooded Seal is not 
uncommonly, during the spring, killed in considerable 
numbers by the sealers. The young " pelt" weighs 70-80 
pounds, while the old male or "dog hood," weighs 400 
pounds. 

Raiigifer caribou Baird. Lives in summer on the hill- 
tops away from the woods. 

Ovibos moschatus Blainville. As the Labrador Es- 
kimo have a distinct name for the musk-ox, it is natur- 
ally inferred that it may have formerly inhabited the 
northwestern part of the peninsula, as it once occurred on 
the opposite coast of Hudson's Bay as far south as 
Churchill River. 

Ursus inaritimus Linn. White bear. 

Ursus am.eruanus Pallas. The black bear is abundant 
on the southern coast, where it leaves its winter quarters 
in May, but above Hopedale is very rarely seen. 



MAMMALS, 445' 

Procyon lotor Storr. Raccoon. Square Island. 
Lutra canadensis Sabine. Common along the whole 

coast. 

Mephitis mephitica (Shaw). Rarely seen on the 
southern coast. (Stearns.) 

Gulo luscus (Linn.). Wolverine. Generally distrib- 
uted along the coast. (Stearns.) 

Putorius vison (Schreber). The Mink is common 
along the coast. 

Putorius vulgaris (Erxl.). This and the Ermine are 
common everywhere. 

Putorius erminea (Linn.). 

Mustela americana Turton. The American Sable or 
Marten is common. 

Mustela pennaiiti Erxl. The Fisher is occasionally 
seen in Southern Labrador. (Stearns.) 

Vulpes fulv2ts Linn. The Red Fox occurred com- 
monly at Stagg Bay, with the following species of the 
silver and black fox. The former is not uncommon, the 

black very rare. _ „ . •, 

Vulpes lagopus Linn. The " Blue Fox is exceed- 
ingly rare about the mouth of Hamilton Inlet. An old 
huliter told me he had seen but three of them within a 
period of forty years. Their fur is shorter, and the tail 
shorter and more bushy than the " Patch Fox." On a 
high isolated rock much frequented by sea-birds, I no- 
ticed a Patch Fox with a murre's ^gg in its mouth. It is 
very tame and unsuspicious on the outer islands, where it 
lives evidently by robbing the nests of sea-birds. ^ It is 
the common statement of the hunters that the different 
varieties of this species are found in the same litter. 



.446 THE ZOOLOGY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Canis lupus Linn. The Gray Wolf is said by Stearns 
to be very rare. 

Lynx canadensis (Desm.). Ttie Lynx is common in 
winter. (Stearns.) 

Appendix to Chapter XV. Zoology. 

By an unfortunate oversight the end of the list of in- 
sects was left out of its proper place. 

le pidoptera — concluded. 

Eurymus nastes (Boisd.) = Colias nastes of former 
list. I have not re-examined specimens, as they are ap- 
parently no longer extant. 

Pamphila comma (Linn.) = Hesperia comma of my 
former list. The single specimen obtained v^^as not ex- 
amined by me in my study of the species of Pamphila 
(Memoirs Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, ii., 341), and is the 
only specimen I have seen of P. comma from America. 
It belongs to the var. catena Stand, found in northern 
Scandinavia and Lapland, and exactly resembles the 
specimen of that variety figured by me in the memoir 
j-eferred to above Moschler has already noted that it 
is this variety which occurs in Labrador. 

Hesperia centaurece Ramb. 

hymenoptera. 

Urocerus flavicornis Fabr. Common on Caribou 
Island. 

Urocerus cyaneus Fabr. Hopedale. 

Euura OT-bitalis Norton. Var. a. b. Caribou Island. 

Nemattis Labradoris Norton. Caribou Island. 

Nematus malacus Norton. Caribou Island. 

Neniatus fallax Norton. Caribou Island. 

JVematus monela Norton. Caribou Island. 

JSlematus fulvipes Norton. Caribou Island. 



INSECTS. 447 

Ne^nattts placentus Norton. Caribou Island. 

Aliantus ortgi7talis Norton. Caribou Island. 

Macrophya {Pachy protasis) omega Norton. Caribou 
Island. 

Tenthredo mellinus Norton. Caribou Island. 

Tenthredo cinctitibiis Norton. Caribou Island. 

Formica herculanea Linn. Whole coast. 

Formica san (guinea Latr. Strait of Belle Isle. 

Vespa macidata Linn. Southern coast, Mecatina 
■Island. 

Vespa norvegica Fabr. Caribou Island. 

Bombus lacustris Cresson. Whole northern coast ; 
common. 

Bombus kir by elites Curtis. Sloop Harbor and Hope- 
dale. 

BombiLs frigidus Smith. Square Island and Hope- 
dale. 

Bombus 7tivalis Dahlb. Caribou Island and whole 
coast northward. 

^Ichneumon la^'ice Curtis. Ross' Voyage. Fig. i. 
Okkak. 

"This species labelled /. erythrosomus by Holmgren 
seems to me to be the same as /. larics of Curtis, only 
differing in the color from our specimens from Green- 
land." (C. Aurivillius in letter.) 

Ichnetcmon nigrorufus. Fide Holmgren. Caribou 
Island. 

Ichneumon Packardii Holmgren MS. Hopedale. 

Cryptus Fabricii Schiocdte. Tub Island. 

Campoplex arcticus Curtis ? Caribou Island. 



*The Ichneumonidae were partially named by the late Mr. A. E. Holmgren 
■of Sweden, the work having been interrupted by his death. Besides these about 
.twenty other species were collected, with two or three species of Chalcididae. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE BOTAN!^ OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Very little herbalizing has been done on the shores of 
this region and none at all in the interior. The earliest 
paper devoted especially to Labrador botany appears to 
be E. Meyer's De plantes labradoricis published at 
Leipzig in. 1830. The late Rev. Samuel Weiz, for many 
years missionary at Hopedale, kindly allowed us while 
at that station in 1864 to make a copy of his list of 
northern Labrador plants. As regards the botany of 
the St. Lawrence or Gulf Coast of Labrador we know 
more. The Rev. S. R. Butler, a missionary and succes- 
sor of the Rev. C. C. Carpenter at Caribou Island, near 
the mouth of Eskimo River, botanized several seasons 
on Caribou Island, at Forteau Bay and L'Ance Amour, 
and the results are given in his excellent list entitled 
"Labrador Plantes," published in the Canadian Natural- 
ist.'"' This list was added to by Mr. W. A. Stearns,f who 
collected at Harrington Harbor, Bale des Roches, Bonne 
Esp(Srence and Salmon Bay and at a point seven miles 
up the Eskimo River. Miss MacFarlane also afforded 
Mr. Butler " much valuable material." Reference may 
also be made to Sir John Richardson's list of plants col- 

*Vol. V. 1870. September No. 

f Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. vi. No. 8. Aug. i. 1883. 

448 



NORTHERN LIMITS OF TREES. 449 

lected on the Island of Anticosti and coast of Labrador 
in i860. While the plants of the Gulf coast are a mix- 
ture of arctic, subarctic and Alpine floras with that of 
the northern Canadian shores of the St. Lawrence River, 
those of northern Labrador are naturally more purely 
arctic. • 

The extreme northern point touched by an observer 
of plant life in Fort Chimo. In the introduction to 
his list of birds of Labrador * Mr. Turner thus refers to 
the vegetation :—" The limit of tiQes ceases only lo 
miles north of Fort Chimo. The principal trees are 
species of Abies, Larix, Betula, Populus, Alnus, Salix, 
and Juniperus. The moie common flowering plants are 
Anemone, Ranunculus, Draba, Viola, Arenaria, Stellaria, 
Lathyrus, Potentilla, Rubus, Ribes, Saxifraga, Epilo- 
bium, Heracleum, Taraxacum, Vaccinium, Kalmia, 
Rhododendron, Ledum, Pinguicula, Gentiana, Empe- 
trum, Habenaria, Iris, and Smilacina. Of sedo-es and 
grasses, J uncus, Scirpus, Eriophorum,'Carex, Poa, Ely- 
mus, and Aira are the more common." Dr. Robert 
Bell collected plants on the northern coasts, which were 
identified by Prof. Macoun, and are embraced in the 
list given beyond. 

Dr. Kochf thus writes regarding the forests and vege- 
tation at Nain, a point not far from the northern limit 
of trees : " The northernmost valleys in which firs grow 
open into Napartok Bay. North of Napartok Bay { 
(Napartok means fir) [more properly spruce] are found 
only dwarf willows and birches ; mosses and lichens form 

*Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii. Nos. 15, 16, 1885. 

f Deutsche Geographische Blatter, Bremen, 1884. 

if Napartok Bay is just south of the 58th parallel of latitude. 



450 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

the principal covering of the ground. In the south, 
near the coast, the forests have been partly destroyed by 
reckless cutting, and the devastated character of the 
region about Hopedale is due in great part to the 
destruction of the forests on the valley sides by the 
Eskimo. As everything naturally grows slo\'\^y on ac- 
count of the short summer, the trunks of the firs are 
subjected to great tension, so that those which have lost 
their bark seem twisted like corkscrews. Hand in hand 
with this goes on a rapid new growth of the thickness 
of the trunk towards the top ; both causes render the 
wood useless for timber. On account of the short spring 
this country, like other arctic regions, has a flora numer- 
ically rich in individuals but poor in species, and it 
reminds one of the alps and the mountains of Norway. 
Of the plants, besides bilberries and cranberries, only a 
kind of cochlearia and cloudberry (in Eskimo Akbik) 
are useful, the latter being used by the Eskimo in attacks 
of scurvy, hence for that reason it is much valued and 
gathered. In consequence of this many places are 
named for it, for example Akbikse, Akbiktok, vis. 
places where Akbik grows. 

" Moreover the missionaries raise potatoes and cab- 
bages, but not only is the seed sown with much trouble 
—for the garden must be dug out of the snow in spring 
— but also during the summer they must be covered 
every night with mats on account of the nightly frosts." 

Of the mosses of Labrador what is known is probably 
comprised in a paper entitled Moosvegetation and Moos- 
beaude in Labrador, 



PLANTS. 451 



CATALOGUE OF THE PLANTS REPORTED 

BY VARIOUS TRAVELLERS AND 

OTHERS AS GROWING ON THE 

COAST OF LABRADOR. 

Compiled by John Macoun, Naturalist of the De- 
partment OF Interior, Ottawa, Canada. 

ranunculace^. 

7. Anemone parviflora Michx. Coast of Labrador 
(Torn and Gray, p. 12) ; common on the highlands of 
Forteau (W. E. Stearns) ; Hopedale (VVeiz). 

20. Thalictrimt dioicum Linn, On Caribou Island 
{S. R. Butler) ; common on highlands along the mar- 
gins of streams, and in the interior at Forteau (W. E. 
Stearns). 

22. Thalictmim Cormiti Linn. Coast of Labrador 
at Forteau (McGill Coll. Herb). 

34. Ranunculus affinis R. Br. Hopedale (Weiz). 

40. Ranunczdus pygmcBtcs Wahl. Coast of Labrador 
(Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

44. Ranunculus nivalis Linn. From Labrador and 
Spitzbergen (Torr. and Gray, pasfe 21); Hopedale 
(Weiz). 

54. Calthapalustris Linn. Strait of Belle Isle (J. Rich- 
ardson) ; Hopedale (Weiz). See R. Americanus 
(J. M.). 

57. Coptis trifolia Salisb. Labrador and north to 
lat. 58° (Hooker); on hills, Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 



452 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

NYMPH^ACE.'E. 

95. Nuphar advena Ait. Ponds, Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler). 

SARRACENIACE.^. 

100. Sarracenia purpurea Linn. Not infrequent in 
bogs. (Hooker). 

PAPAVERACE^. 

102. Papaver nudicaule Linn. Hopedale Islands,. 
Weiz. 

CRUCIFER^. 

Cardamine pratensis Linn. Wet, swampy meadows 
(Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz). See C. Cellidifolia. 

143. Arabis alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador (Col- 
master) ; Forteau Bay, by the seashore (S. R. Butler) ; 
Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 

144. Arabis stricta Huds. Coast of Labrador (Col- 
master vide Pursh). This is very likely Arabis confinis, 
Watson. Hopedale Island (Weiz). 

169. Draba alpina var. (?) corymbosa, Durand. Coast 
of Labrador (Abbe Brunot). 

170. Draba stellata var. nivalis, Regd. Coast of 
Labrador (Colmaster vide Hooker). 

175. Draba incana Linn. D. contorta Ehrh.; Weiz' 
List. D. glabella Richardson ; Weiz, List. Coast of 
Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

Var. conftisa Poir. Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R. 
Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

176. Draba arabisans Michx. Hopedale (Weiz). 

177. Draba aurea Vahl. Hopedale (Weiz). 



PLANTS. 453 

182. Cochlearia officinalis Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Abbe Brunot); Hopedale (Weiz). 

185. Cochlearia tridactylites Banks. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Sir Joseph Banks); Cape Charles (Abbe Brunot) ; 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; Seashore, Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

197. Capsella bursa-pastoris Moench. Introduced. 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

VIOLACE^. 

240. Viola canina van sylveslris, Regel. V. Muhlen- 
bergii ? Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Isl- 
and (S, R. Butler). 

229. Viola blanda Willd. Hopedale (Weiz). 

CARYOPHYLLACE^. 

263, Silene acatdis Linn, Caribou Island (S. R. But- 
ler); Hopedale (Weiz). 

264. Lychnis apetala Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Judge Morrison). 

266. Lychnis alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Judge Morrison); Ungava Bay (Barnston) ; Nach- 
vak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

281. Arenaria verna Linn. A. juniperina Pursh ; 
Weiz' List; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler); Cape 
Charles and Amour Bay (Abbe Brunot) ; Coast of 
Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

287. Arenaria Grcenlandica Spreng. Nain and 
Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; summits 
of low hills at Baie des Roches, abundant (W. E. 
Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler). 



454 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

288. Arenaria serpyllifolia Linn. Coast of Labra- 
dor. Introduced. (Abb6 Brunot.) 

291. Arenaria peploides Linn. Honkenya peploides 
Ehrh.; Butler's List; Coast of Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

295. Stellaria borealis Bigel. Hopedale (Weiz). 

298. Stellaria crassifolia Ehrh. Arenaria norvegica ? 
Weiz' List. Rather common in damp localities along 
the coast (W. E. Steams); Hopedale, Weiz. 

300. Stellaria longipes Goldie. Var. minor, Hook.. 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain (R. Bell). 

Var. Edwardsii Torr. and Or. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Coast of Labrador (Miss Macfarline) Caribou Island ? 
(Butler.) 

305. Stellaria humifusa Rottb. Arenaria Purshiana^ 
Seringe ; Weiz' List ; Nain, along the coast (R. Bell) ; 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; seashore of Labrador (Pursh) ; Sea- 
beach, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

311. Cerastium alpinum Linn. Forteau Bay (S. R. 
Butler) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and 
Nain (R. Bell). 

Var. glabratum Hook. Hopedale (W^eiz) ; Nach> 
vak (R. Bell). 

318. Sagina nodosa E. Meyer. Mingan Islands and 
Labrador Coast. (St. Cyr) ; Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

321, Spergularia salina Presl. Brackish sands along 
the coast (Abbe Brunot). 

PORTULACACE^. ' 

340. Montia fontana Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Gmelin.) 



PLANTS. 455 

LEGUMINOSE^. 

499. AstragaliLS alpiniis Linn. A. Labradoricus. 
Hook.; Weiz' List. Caribou Island or Forteau Bay 
(S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Nachvak 
(R. Bell). 

525. Oxytropis podocarpa Gray. Labrador and the 
Arctic regions, (Dr. Gray). 

527. Oxytropis campestris L. Var. cserulea, Koch. 
Coast of Labrador, (Abbe Brunot) ; Ford's Harbor and 
Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hill-sides near Forteau Light- 
house, (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

533. Hedysaruni boreale Woit. Hopedale (Weiz); 
Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler). 

556. Lathyrzis maritiinus Bigel. Pisum maritimum, 
Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler.) 

559. Lathyrus paluster Linn. Caribou Island and 
Forteau Bay, (S, R. Butler.) 

ROSACE.^. 

571. Prunus Penitsylvanica Linn. Cerasus ?' 

Butler's List. Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler.) 

588. Rubiis Chci'-MCBinorus Linn. Ford's Harbor (R, 
Bell) ; Straits of Belle Isle (St. Cyr.) ; Hopedale 
(Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

589. Rubus arcticus Linn. Peat bogs, coast of Lab- 
rador (Abbe Brunot) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Is- 
land (S. R. Butler). 

Var. grandiflorus Ledeb. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker) ; Nain and Nachvak (R Bell). 

592. Rubus triflorus, Rich. Forteau Bay (S. R. 
Butler). 



45^ THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

605. Diyas octopetala\J\\vc\. D. tenella, Pursh ; Weiz' 
List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak and Cape Chudley 
(R. Bell) ; Hill tops, Point Amour (S. R. Butler). 

612. Geum rivale Linn. In springy places along 
the coast (W. E, Stearns). 

613. Geum triflorum Pursh. Dry rocky ground 
(Judge Morrison). 

618. Sibbaldia proczi'mbens\J\xi\\. Coast of Labrador 
(M'GiU Coll. Herb.); Hopedale (Weiz). 

625. Potentilla Norvegica Linn. Forteau Bay and 
Caribou Island (S R. Butler) ; Nain (R. Bell). 

637. Potentilla nivea Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). 

641. Potentilla maculata Poir. 

P. Salisbmyensis Haenke ; Weiz' List. 

P. aurca Oeder; Weiz' List. 

P. crocea Haller ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell); on hills at Amour (S R. 
Butler). 

643. Potentilla emarginata Pursh. Coast of Labrador 
(Colmaster). 

645. Potentilla palustris Scop, 

Comarum palustris Linn. ; Weiz' List. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island. (S. R. Butler). 

647. Potentilla fruticosa Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker). 

648. Potentilla tridentata Solander. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

649. Potentilla Anserina Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

653. Alchemilla vulgaris Linn. South coast of Lab- 
rador near Amour (S. E. Butler); collected m several 



PLANTS. 457 

localities along the coast (VV. E. Stearns); Hopedale 
(VVeiz). 

656. Poteriimt Canadense Benth. & Hook. Sangui- 
.sorbii Canadensis, Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz); 
•common on dry sloping flats along the coast (VV. E. 
Stearns); Caribou Island (Butler). 

674. Pirns Americana DC. Var. microcarpa, Torn 
^ Gr. Caribou Island, (S. R. Butler). Not rare on 
the coast (W. E. Stearns); Hopedale (Weiz). 

685. Avielanchier Canadensis Var. (?) oligocarpa, T. 
•& Gr. South coast of Labrador at Amourand Caribou 
Island (S. R. Butler). 

SAXIFRAGACE.^. 

686. Saxifraga oppositifolia Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
-on rocks at Amour (S. R. Butler). 

688. Saxifraga Aizoo7i Jacq. Coast of Labrador 
(Judge Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

690. Saxifraga ccsspitosa Linn. Var. Groenlandica, 
Wahl ; S, Groenlandica, Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Forteau Bay (S, R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. 
Bell). 

693. Saxifraga rivularis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Coast of Labrador, (M'Gill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak 
(R. Bell). . 

695. Saxifraga cernua Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Coast of Labrador (Pursh). 

698. Saxifraga nivalis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Cari- 
bou Island, (S. R. Butler). 

702. Saxifraga hieracifolia Waldst. and Kit. Hope- 
dale (Weiz). 



458 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

713. Saxifraga tricuspidata Retz. Coast of Labra- 
dor (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

714. Saxifraga aizoides Linn. Southeast coast of 
Labrador (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (VVeiz) ; Nach- 
vak (R. Bell). 

724. Mitella mida Linn. Cool damp places (Hooker). 

']'i,']' Parnassia palustris Linn. Hopedale (VVeiz) ; 
Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 

740. Parnassia Kotzebuei Cham, and Schlecht. Hope- 
dale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (M'Gill Coll. Herb.). 

753. Ribes prostratiimYJW^x. R. glandulosum, Ait.; 
Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

CRASSULACEiE. 

769. Sedum Rhodiola DC. Nain, Nachvak, and Ford's- 
Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

DROSERACE^. 

771. Drosera rotundifolia Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

HALORAGE^. 

781. Hippurus vulgaris Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

ONAGRACE/E. 

786. Epilobium angtistifolittm Linn. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island, 
(S. R. Butler) ; Nain and Nachvak (R. Bell). 

787. Epilobium latifolium Linn. Hopedale (Weiz); 



PLANTS. 459' 

Amour Bay, on the south coast, and Caribou Island (S, 
R. Butler). 

789. Epilobium alpimim Linn. E. nutans, Lehm.; 
Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; South coast of Labra- 
dor (Abbe Brunot). 

794. Epilobium palustre Linn. Var. lineare, Gray. 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; Coast of Labrador (Judge Morri- 
son). 

UMBELLIFER^. 

871. Archangelica atropurpurea Hoffm. Angelica 
Archangelica, Schrank ; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
On the south coast at Amour Bay and Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

872. Ai^changelica GmeliniTiO. Coast of Labrador, 
(McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Strait of Belle Isle (St. Cyr). 

. 864. Ligustictim Scoticuin Umn. Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler). 

883. Heracleum lanatum Michx. -Caribou Island, 
(S. R. Butler) ; Coast of Labrador (Hooker). 

CORNACE^. 

885. Cornus Canadensis Linn. Caribou Island, and 
Forteau Bay (S. R. Butler) ; Nain (R. Bell) ; Hope- 
dale (Weiz), 

896. Cornus Suecica Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Abbe Brunot) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Ford's 
Harbor (R. Bell). 

CAPRIFOLIACEiE. 

916. Viburnum pauciflortim Pylaie. Caribou Island. 
(S. R. Butler). 



453 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

919. Linncsa borealis Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Cari 
bou Island (S. R. Butler). 

929. Lonicera ccerulea Linn. In bogs, frequent 
(Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

RUBIACE^. 

941. Galium trzjidum Linn. (^G. Claytord Hook. ; 
Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

COMPOSITE. 

984. Solidago macrophylla Pursh. {S. thyrsoidea E. 
Meyer; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Is- 
land (S. R. Butler) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

986. Solidago Virgaured, van alpina Bigel. Hope- 
dale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 

987. Solidago multiradiata Ait. Along the coast of 
Labrador (Judge Morrison). 

1019. Aster Radula Ait., var. stricttts Gray. Cari- 
bou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of 
Labrador (Pursh). 

1079. Erigero7i unifloi'-us Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1092. Erigeron acris Linn. Coast of Labrador (Torr. 
and Gray); Hopedale (Weiz). 

1098. Antennaria dioica Gaertn. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

1099. Antennaria alpina Gsertn. Coast of Labrador 
(Colmaster); Hopedale (Weiz); Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

1 1 00. Antennaria Carpathica R. Br. Coast of La- 
A)rador (Dr. Gray). 



PLANTS. 461 

1 106. Gnaphalium NorvegicuinQf\xxix\QX. {G. sylvati- 
ctim Linn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of 
Labrador (Torn and Gray). 

1 1 10. Giiaphalium S2ipiu7i,in Vill. (6^. pusilluin 
Hgenke ; Weiz' List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri- 
son) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

W] 2,' Achillea Millefolium Linn., var. nigrescens 
E. Meyer. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain (R. Bell) ; Cari- 
bou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1 193. Artemisia borealis Pall, var. spithanioea Torr. 
and Gray. Coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale 
Islands (Weiz). 

1 2 14. Petasites palmata Gray. Swamps, Labrador 
coast (Hooker) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 

1 122. A.rnica alpina Murr. Coast of Labrador (Torr. 
and Gray) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz) ; Nachvak and 
Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

1242. Senecio Pseudo-Ar7ticah,QSS. Hopedale Islands 
(Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Hooker).- 

1244. Se7tecio frigidtcs 'LiGss. Coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Gray). 

1237. Senecio aureus Linn., var. borealis, Torr. and 
Gray. Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 

1286. Hieracium vulgatum Fries. Coast of Labrador 
(Colmaster) ; Hopedale Islands (Weiz). 

1308. Taraxictim officinale Weber, var. alpimun, 
Koch. Not uncommon along the coast of Labrador 
(W. E. Stearns) ; rocky soil, Nachvak and Nain (R. 
Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 



^62 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 



CAMPANULACE^. 



1 341. Campanula miifior a \Ax\x\.. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

1 344. Ca^npanula rohmdifolia L., var. a^'ctica Lange. 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; Middle Bay, Belles Amours, and 
L'Anse Amour (S. R. Butler) , common at Forteau 
Bay (W. E. Stearns). 



ERICACE^. 



1352. Vaccinmm Pennsylvanicum, var. angustifolium 
Gray. Nain (Lundberg) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou 
Island (Martin, S. R. Butler). 

1356. Vaccinhcm tdiginosu7n Linn. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; common on the coast at Nain, Ford's Harbor, 
and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. But- 
ler). 

1358. Vaccinium ccBspitostmi Michx. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; on hill-sides at Belles Amours and on Caribou 
Island (S. R. Butler). 

1364. Vaccinium Vitis-Idcsa Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1365. Vaccinium Oxy coccus \Axiw. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Caribou Islands (S. R. Butler). 

1366. Vaccinium, macrocarpon Ait. By lakelets 
along the coast. (Abbe Brunot). 

1367. Chiogenes hispidula Torn and Gray. On moss, 
along the coast (Hooker). 

1369. Arciosiapkylos alpina S^irQng. {Arbutus alpina 
Linn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor 
and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

1383. Andromeda polifolia Linn. Hopedale (Weiz); 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 



PLANTS. 



1376. Cassandra calyculata Don. Borders of lakelets 
and swamps along the coast (Hooker); Square Island 
Harbor (B. P. Mann). 

1378. Cassiope hypnoides Don. Andromeda hyp- 
noides Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain 
and Cape Chidley (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison). 

1 38 1. Cassiope tetragona T>on. Andromeda tetragona 
Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Lab- 
rador (Colmaster) ; abundant along the coast at Nain 
and Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1389. Bryantkus taxifolius Gidij . Andromeda cceru- 
lea Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Nain, Nachvak, and Ford's Harbor 
(R. Bell). 

1393. Kalmiaangusti/oliaUiwn. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison). 

1394. Kalmia glauca Ait. Hopedale (Weiz); Cari- 
bou Island (S. R. Butler) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison). 

1395. Ledum palustre Uiwn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and 
Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1396. Ledum latifolzum Ait. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

1386. Loiseleurta procumbensT)e^SY. Azalea procum- 
bens Linn.; Weiz' List. Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of 
Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

1402. Rhododendron Rhodora Don. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

1405. Rhododendron Lapponicum Wahl. {Azalea 



464 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

Lapponica, Weiz' List.) Coast of Labrador (Dr. Morri- 
son) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; on a hill-top at Belles Amours 
(S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1409. Pyrola minor Linn. Cold woods, Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

14 10. Pyrola secunda, var. pitmila Gray. Cool boggy 
ground, Labrador (Storer) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

141 1. Pyrola chlorantha Swartz. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison). 

1 41 3. Pyrola rotundifolia L., var. ptimila Hook. 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; quite common along the northern 
coast (R. Bell). 

141 6. Aloneses tcnijlora Gray. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

DIAPENSIACE/E. 

1424. Diapensia prommbens Linn. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison) ; common 
on hill-tops, Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nain and 
Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

PLUMBAGINACEvE. 

1426. Armeria vulgaris Willd. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nain and Nach- 
vak (R. Bell). 

PRIMULACE^. 

1427. Primula fariitosa Linn. Hopedale Islands 
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island and L'Anse Amour (S. R. 
Butler). 

1428. Primula Mistassinica Michx. Bonne Esp^r- 
ance and neighboring islands, and at Forteau (S. R.. 
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 



PLANTS. 465 

2192. Primula Egaliksensis Hornem. Northern 
Labrador (Turner). 

1 2 13. Trzentalts Americana Pursh.. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

GENTIANACE.E. 

1480. Gentiana Amarella L., var. acuta Hook. 
Coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

1482. Gentiana propinqua Richards. On hillsides at 
Amour and lowlands at Bonne Esperance (W. A.. 
Stearns) ; more likely the preceding species (Macoun). 

2194. Gentiana nivalis \J\wxi. Labrador, collected by 
Moravian missionaries (Gray) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

1500. Plenrogyne rotata Griseb. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Gray) ; on the flats at Caribou, and shores of 
Esquimaux River, and at Bonne Esperance (S. R. 
Butler). 

1 50 1. Pletirogyne Carinthiaca Griseb., var. pusilla 
Gray. Coast of Labrador (Pursh). 

1504. Halenia dejlexa Griseb. Forteau Bay (Miss 
Brodie) ; on the hillsides at L'Anse Amour and the low- 
lands at Bonne Esperance (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou 
Island (S. R. Butler). 

1506. Menyantkes trifoliata'LmYi. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

BORRAGINACE.E. 

1570. Mertensia maritima Don. Hopedale (Weiz); 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 



466 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

SCROPHULARIACE^. 

1674. Veronica alpina Linn. Nain (Lundberg; 
Hopedale (Weiz). 

1689. Castilleia pallida Kunth, var. septentrionalis 
Gray. (^Barlsia pallida 'Lmn.; Weiz' List.) Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Ford's Harbor and Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1696. EtLphrasia officinalis \J\x\xi. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

Var. Tatarica Benth. Coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1697. Bartsia alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Colmaster) ; Ungava Bay (McGill Coll. Herb.) ; Nach- 
vak (R. Bell). 

1 702. Pedictua7'is Grcenlandica Retz. Coast of Lab- 
rador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale 
(Weiz). 

1704. Pedictdaris Lapponica Linn. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Colmaster) ; Nachvak (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

1 706. Pedicularis euphrasioides Stephan. Coast of 
Labrador (Colmaster) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Ford's 
Harbor (R. Bell). 

1 714. Pedicularis hirsuta Linn. Ford's Harbor and 
Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

1 715. Pedicularis Jlamntea U[wn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
coast of Labrador (Colmaster) ; Ford's Harbor and 
Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1 7 18. R hinanthus Cristagalli lAnn. Common along 
the whole Labrador coast (W. E. Stearns) ; Caribou Isl- 
and (S. R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 



PLANTS. 467 

LENTIBULARIACEiE. 

1737. Pinguicula vulgaris Linn. Ungava Bay (Mrs. 
Lizzie Crawford) ; L'Anse Amour Bay (S. R. Butler) ; 
Hopedale (Weiz) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

1738. Pinguicula villosa Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Gray) ; Hopedale (Weiz). ' 

1739. Pinguicula alpina Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Steinhauer). 

PLANTAGINACE^. 

1808. Plantago maritima Linn. Crevices of rocks, 
coast of Labrador (Pursh) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Caribou 
Island (S. R. Butler) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

POLYGONACE.^. 

1869. Polygonu7n aviculare\Jvi\w. Hopedale (Weiz). 

1892. Polygonum vivipartim\J\wxi. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Ford's Harbor and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

1902. Oxyria digyna Campdera {^Rumex digyna 
Pursh.; Weiz' List). Hopedale (Weiz) ; coast of Lab- 
rador (Dr. Morrison) ; Nachvak and Cape Chidley (R. 
Bell) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1904. Rumex occidentalis Watson. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Storer) ; Bonne Esperance (J. A. Allen). 

1867. Koenigia Islandica Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). 

SANTALACE^. 

1930. Comandra livida Rich. Coast ' of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

BETULACE^. 

1977. Betula papyrifera Michx. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Prof Sargent). 



468 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

1979. Be tula pumila Linn. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker). 

198 1. Betitla glaizdulosayi'ichx. Coast of Labrador 
(Hooker) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

1982. Be tula nana Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison). ^ 

1986. Almis viridis DC. Coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

SALICACEyE. 

2004. Salix adenophylla Hook. Coast of Labrador 
(Dr. Morrison and Bebb). 

2007. Salix arctica R. Br. Coast of Labrador (Dr. 
Morrison); Nachvak and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

2008. Salix argyrocarpa Anders. Ungava Bay (G» 
Barnston) ; Forteau Bay and Carrall Cove (Allen). 

2010. Salix balsamif era VidiXX?iXX.. Chateau and Square 
Island (Allen). 

2012, Salix Candida Willd. Forteau Bay (Allen). 

2013. Salix chloT-ophylla Anders. Nain and Ford's 
Harbor (R. Bell). 

2021. Salix glauca Linn. Damp places at Nachvak 
and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

2022. Salix herbacea Linn. Coast of Labrador (Dr.. 
Morrison) ; Nain and Cape Chidley (R. Bell). 

2042. Salix reticulata Linn. Nachvak and Cape 
Chidley (R. Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Dr. Morrison). 

2050. Salix vestita Pursh. Coast of Labrador (Col- 
master) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

2051. Salix Uva-ursi Pursh. Coast of Labrador 
(Colmaster) ; Dead Islands (Allen). 

2053. Populus tremuloides Michx. On dry slopes in 
the interior (Hooker). 



PLANTS. 4^9 

EMPETRACE^. 

2059. Empetrum nigrum Linn. (Curlew-berry). 
Ford's Harbor (R. Bell) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

CONIFERS. 

2068. Juniperus communus, var. alpina Linn. Coast 
of Labrador (Hooker). 

2082. Picea nigra Link. Not uncommon (Hooker). 

2083. Picea alba Link. Not uncommon (Hooker). 
2094. Larix Americana Michx. Swampy soil 

(Hooker). 

ORCHIDACE^. 

22 21. Lister a cor data R. Br. Coast of Labrador 
(Morrison) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

2243. Habenaria hyperborea R. Br. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

2248. Habenaria obtusata Rich. Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler). 

2246. Habenaria dilatata Gray. Hopedale Islands 
(Weiz). 

IRIDACE^. 

2270. Iris Hookeri Penny. (/. sibirica Weiz' List.) 
Hopedale Island (Weiz). 

LILIACE^. 

2287. Streptopus amplexifolius Dc. Caribou Island 
(S R. Butler). 

2288. Streptopus roseus Michx. Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

2289. Smilicina stellata Desf. Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler). 



470 THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

2293. Smilicina trifolia Desf. Caribou Island (S. 
R. Butler). 

2294. Mazanthemum Canadense Desf. Caribou Isl- 
and (S. R. Butler). 

2329. Tofieldia borealis Wahl. Ford's Harbor (R. 
Bell) ; coast of Labrador (Hooker) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

2341. Clintonia borealis Raf. Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

JUNCACE^. 

2367. y uncus triglumis Linn. Ungava Bay (G. Barn- 
ston). 

2369. Juncus castaneiis Smith. Ungava Bay (G. 
Barnston). 

2389. Luzula spadicea, van parviflora Meyer. Nain. 
and Nachvak (R. Bell). 

2394. Luzula spicata Desv. Ungava Bay (G. Barn- 
ston) ; Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

2396. Luzula arcttata Meyer. Ungava Bay (G. 
Barnston) ; Nachvak (R. Bell). 

TYPHACE^. 

2./!ip\. Sparganium simplex Huds. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

2403. Sparganium hyperboreum Laest., var. Ameri- 
canum Beeby. Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

NAIADACE^. 

2424. Triglochin palustre Linn. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 



PLANTS. 471 

2425. Triglochin maritimtim Linn. Coast of Lab- 
rador (Dr. Morrison). 

CYPERACE.-E. 

2489. Eriophorum vaginatum Linn. Hopedale 
(Weiz) ; Caribou Island (S. R. Butler) ; Bonne Esper- 
ance (Allen) ; Dumpling Harbor (Mann). 

2490. Eriophorum russeoluni Fries. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler, Martin) ; Hopedale (Weiz) ; Forteau 
(Allen) ; Nain (Lundberg). 

2491. Eripphortim polys tacky on, var. angustifolium 
Gray. Hopedale (Weiz). 

Eriophorum Scheuchzeri Hoppe. Coast of Labra- 
dor (Martin) ; Nain (Lundberg). 

2476. Scirpus ccEspitosiLs Linn. Hopedale (Weiz). 

2556. Carex canescens Linn. Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

2564. Carex lagopina Wahl. Maritime rocks, Labra- 
dor (Allen). 

2566. Carex pratensis Drejer. Middle Bay, Labra- 
dor (Allen). 

2598. Carex vulgaris, var, hyperborea Boott. Nairt 
and Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

2604. Carex lenticular is Michx. Coast of Labrador, 
Lat. 51° 30' (Allen). 

2608. Carex salinaV^2\)\. Coast of Labrador( Bailey). 

2609. Carex ambusta Booth. Ungava Bay, North 
Labrador (Bailey). 

2617. Carex Mage llanica Lamarck. Caribou Island 
(S. R. Butler). 

2618. Carex rariflora Smith. Coast of Labrador 
(Miss Brodie and Allen). 



472' THE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

2627. Carex vaginata Tausch. Northern Labrador 
(Turner). 

2672. Carex oligosperma Michx. Swamps on the 
coast of Labrador (Allen). 

2674. Carex miliaris Michx. Ungava Bay (Turner). 

2678. Carex rotundata Wahl. Ungava Bay (Turner). 

GRAMINE.^. 

2726. Hierochloa alpina Roem. and Schultes. Ford's 
Harbor (R. Bell) ; Ungava Bay (G. Barnston). 

2807. Deschampsia alba^o^vci.-diwA'^Q)a\x\\.^'s,. Ungava 
Bay (G. Barnston) ; Nain (R. Bell). 

2812. Trisetum subspicatum, var. inolle Gray. Nain 
(R. Bell). 

2848. Poa alpina Linn.. Nain and Cape Chidley (R. 
Bell). 

2854. Poa cenisia All. Ford's Harbor (R. Bell). 

2905. Feshica ovina, var. brevi folia Watson. Ford's 
Harbor (R. Bell). 

2949. Elyinus mollis Trin. Nain and Ford's Harbor 
(R. Bell). 

EQUISETACE.^. 

EquisetMm sylvaticum Linn. Hopedale (Weiz) ; 
Caribou Island (S. R. Butler). 

Equisetum arvense Linn. . Hopedale (Weiz). 

FILICES. 

Botrychium Limaria Swartz. Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler) ; Hopedale (Weiz). 

Cystopteris fragilis Bernh. Nain (R. Bell). 



PLANTS. 473 

PolypodiMjn Dryopteris Linn. Caribou Island (S. R. 
Butler). 

LYCOPODIACE^. 

Lycopodium Selago Linn. Nain and Ford's Harbor 
(R. Bell). 

, Lycopodium lucidulum Michx. Caribou Island (S. 
R Butler). 

APPENDIX. 

The following notes and corrections to this chapter 
have been made by Mr. Sereno Watson, who kindly read 
the proof in the absence of Prof. Macoun. Proof of 
pp. 448-459 was read after the pages had been printed. 
Mr. Watson writes me that the earliest paper on the 
Labrador flora was one by Schrank in the first volume 
of the Regensburg " Flora" (18 18), on some plants sent 
to Schreber by the Danish missionary Kohlmeister*. 
It was not completed, however. Meyer's list includes 
J98 species. 

P. 448, line 5, for plantes read plantis. 

P. 448, line 14, for Ance read Anse. 

P. 451, line 15, for cornitti, Linn. x^diA polyganum, 
Muhl. 

P. 451, line 23, dele See R. America7itcs (J. M.). 

P. 452, line 20, for Draba alpina Van (?) corymbosa, 
Durand, read Draba Fladnitzensis, Wulf. 

P. 452, line 21, add Dead Islands (J. A. Allen). 

P. 452, line 24, after Labrador (Pursh), add from the 
next line, Nachvak, coast of Labrador (R. Bell). 

* Spelt Colmaster in the foregoing list. 



474 'I'HE BOTANY OF THE LABRADOR COAST. 

P. 452, line 25, dele Var. confusa Pair. 

P. 452, line 26, dele Hopedale (Weiz). 

P. 452, line 27, for Draba read Var.; and for Michx^ 
read Watson. 

P. 453, line 10, dele sylvestris Regd. V. 

P. 453, line II, for Weiz' List read Gray. 

P. 454, line 27, for Spergularia salina Presb. read 
Buda borealis Watson. 

P. 454, line 28, add Bonne Esp^rance (J. A. Allen). 

P. 455, lines 5, 6, for and the arctic regions (Dr.) read 
Schweinitz in Herb. Gray. 

P. 455, line 10, add Ungava Bay (L. M. Turner);. 
Square Island (J. A. Allen). 

P. 455, line II, for Mott read Nutt. 

P. 455, line 13, for maritiniMm read maritimus, and 
dele Pisum maritimuin Linn. Weiz' List. 

P. 455, line 20, after Caribou Island insert (S. R. 
Butler). 

P. 457, line 10, dele Canadensis Var. (?) ; and for I & 
Gr. read Roem. 

P. 457, line 30, for Hit. read Kit. 

P. 459, line 6, dt\e palustre Linn. Var,; and for Gray' 
read Muhl. 

P. 459, line 10, for Hoffm. read Linn. 

P. 459, line 14, for Archangelica read Coelopleurum\. 
and for Db. read Lecheb. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND ARTICLES RELATING TO THE 
GEOGRAPHY AND CIVIL AND NATURAL HISTORY OF 
LABRADOR. 

This list is merely a tentative one, and will doubtless 
be found quite imperfect, especially in titles relating to 
early discovery, and early maps and charts. The au- 
thor is indebted for certain titles, also for advice, to Dr. 
Franz Boas, who has kindly lent him Chavanne's " The 
Literature on the Polar Regions of the Earth," from 
which a number of titles have been copied. Acknowl- 
edgment of aid should also be made to Mr. W. F. 
Ganong for titles of the North American Pilot. The 
titles of the works of Ramusio, Eden, Gilbert, Frobisher, 
and Hakluyt have not been included. 

A. Explorations, Geography, and History. 

Anon. A brief account established among the Esqui- 
maux, on the coast of Labrador. London, 1774, 8vo. 

The Grand Falls of Labrador. (Goldthwaite's 

Geographical Magazine, Feb. 1891, vol. i. No. 2; pp. 
117-119.) 

Ansparh (C A?). Geschichte und Beschreibung von 
Neufundland und der KUste Labrador. Aus dem 

475 



476 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Engl. TfO. Bd. der Bibliothek der neuesten Reisebeschrei- 
bunp:en von Bertuch. Weimar. 

History of the island of New Foundland 

and the coast of Labrador. London, 1819. 

As/ie {Lieut. E. D.). Journal of a voyage from 
Quebec to Labrador. (Nautical Magazine, 1861, Janu- 
ary ; pp. I-I3-) 

Journal of a voyage from New York to 

Labrador. (Trans. Lit. and Historical Society of Quebec ; 
IV ; April, 1861. Appendix. Svo, pp. 1-16.) 

Aufzeichnimgen (Aus den) eines Kabeljanfischers in 
Labrador. (Globus, I^ldburghausen, 11; 1862; pp. 
281, 314.) 

Baddeley {Lieut. F. H.). Geology of a portion of the 
coast of Labrador. Trans. Lit. and Hist. Soc. Quebec, 
I. art. vi. pp. 72-79, 1829. (His account and measure- 
ments of Castle Island are based on Capt. Campbell's 
explorations made in the autumn of 1827.) 

Ballantyne {R. M^. Ungava : a tale of Esquimaux 
Land. London, Nelson, 1857 ; i860. 

Bancroft {George). History of the United States, 
vol. hi; 1840. (" Scandinavians may have reached the 
shores of Labrador." J. Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. 
America i. p. 93.) 

Barrow {Sir Johii). Voyages to the arctic regions. 
London, 18 18. Places Vinland in Labrador or New- 
foundland. (J, Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. America, 
I. p. 93.) 

Bayfield {Rear- Admiral Henry IVoolsey). Sailing 
directions for the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. 2 
vols. London, 1837-43. 

Beschreibung der Kilste von Labrador vom Cap St. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 47/ 

Charles bis zur Sandwich-Bucht. [Aus Hydrographia 
Notice, No. 3, .London, 1873.] (Hydrogr. Mittlieil., 
Berlin, i. 1873 ; pp. 1 75-1 77-) 

Beschreibung einiger Hafen, Buchten, und Anker- 
platze an den Kiisten von Neufundland und Labrador. 
(Annalen der Hydrogra^hie, Berlin, iv. 1876 ; pp. 
21-26.) 

Biddle {R^. Memoirs of Sebastian Cabot, with a re- 
view of the history of maritime discovery. Illustrated 
by documents from the rolls, now first published. Phila- 
delphia, 183 1 ; 2d ed. London, 1832. 

Boas {Franz). Notes on ihe Geography of Labra- 
dor. (Science, New York, Feb. 17, 1888; xi. 77-79. 
l^ Boitchette. British Dominions in North America. 
(With a topographical map of Lower Canada, 1832.) 

Bowen {Noel H.). The social condition of the coast 
of Labrador. Trans. Lit, and Hist. Soc. Quebec,-iv. art. 
19; Feb. 1856, pp. 329-341. 

British North America. Comprising Canada, British 
£^ Central North America, British Columbia, Vancouver's 
Island, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, New Brunswick, 
Prince Edward's Island, Newfoundland and Labrador. 
378 pp., with maps. London, Religious Tract Society, 
1864, 8vo. 

Cabot, (y. Elliot). Massachusetts Quarterly Review, 
II. (Places the localities on American coast visited by 
the Northmen about Labrador and Newfoundland. 
Winsor's Narr. and Crit. Hist. America, i. 96.) 

Campbell {J. Fi). Frost and Fire. Edinburgh, 1865 ;' 
2 vols. 8vo. (The author visited the Labrador coast in 
1864, and noticed the ice-marks at Indian Island and 
Red Bay.) 



478 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Carpenter (C C). Report on the Labrador mission 
at Caribou Island, Straits of Belle Isle. (Annual report 
1-6 of the Canada Foreign Missionary Society, 1858- 
1863.) 

Cartier {^Jacques). Discours du voyage aux Terres 
neuves, les Canadas, Labrador, etc. 2d ed. Rouen, Bapt. 
du Petit-Val; 1585 ; 1598, i2mo. 

Bref recit et succincte narration de la navi- 
gation faite en 1535 et 1536 au Canada, Hochelaga, Sa- 
guenay. Reimpression figuree de I'edition de 1545, pre- 
ced^e d'une introduction, par d'Avezac. Paris, Tross, 
1863, — Voyage de Jaques Cartier au Canada en 1534 ; 
nouvelle Edition publiee d'apres I'edition de 1598 et 
d'apres Ramusio par Michelant. Documents in^dits sur 
Jaques Cartier et le Canada communiques par A, Rame. 
Parts, Tross, 1865, cartes, — Relation originale du voy- 
age de J. Cartier au Canada en 1534. Documents ine- 
dits sur J. Cartier et le Canada (nouvelle serie), publics 
par Michelant et A. Rame. Paris, Tross, 1867, por- 
trait, fig. Ens. 3 vol. petit in-8 br., n. c, {papier de Hol- 
lander (144)- 

Les cartes sont tres curieuses, elles sont reproduites 
en fac-simile d'apres celles de Ramusio, 1556. 

■ Discours du voyage fait en (1534), par le 

capitaine Jacques Cartier aux terres neuves de Canada, 
Norembergue, Hochelage, Labrador et pays adiacens, 
dite Nouvelle France. Public par H. Michelant. — 
Documents in^dits sur Jacques Cartier et le Canada, 
communiques par A. Rame. Paris, 1865, pet. in-8 br. 
(^papier v^b'n Whatman, public au prix de 20 fr.)(29). 

Avec 2 grandes cartes tirees du Ramusio de 1556, et 
reproduites en fac-simile. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 479 

Cartier {Jacques) (and others). Voyage to New 
Prance. Pinkerton, vol. xii; Hakluyt, vol. iii; Ra- 
musio, vol. III. 

Cartwright (George). A journal of transactions and 
events during a residence of nearly sixteen years on the 
coast of Labrador containing many interesting particu- 
lars, both of the country and its inhabitants, not hitherto 
known. 3 vols, with charts. Newark, 1 792, 4to. 

Sixteen years on the coast of Labrador. 

Newark, 1 792 ; 2 vols. 4to, maps. 

Labrador: a poetical epistle ; 1783. Re- 
printed for W. H. Whiteley, 1882 ; 8vo, pp. 18. 

Cay ley {Edward). Up the River Moisie. Trans. Lit. 
and Hist. Soc. Quebec, n.s. i. 'j'X,. 

Chabert {M. de.). Voyage fait par ordre du roi en 
1750 et 1 75 1, dans I'Amerique septentrionale, pour recti- 
fier les cartes de I'Arcadie de I'lsle Royale et de I'lsle 
de Terre Neuve ; et pour en fixer les principaux points 
par des observations astronomiques. Paris, 1753, 4to. 

Chappell {Lieut. Edward). Narrative of a voyage to 
Hudson's Bay in his majesty's ship Rosamond, contain- 
ing some account of the northeastern coast of America 
and of the tribes inhabiting that remote region. Lon- 
don, 1817; pp. 1-279, map, 8vo. 

Reise nach Neufundland und der stid- 

lichen Ktiste von Labrador. A. d. Engl. Jena, 18 19, 8vo. 

Charlevoix {P. de.). Histoire et description gen^rale 
de la Nouvelle France, avec le journal historique d'un 
voyage fait par ordre du Roi dans I'Amerique Septen- 
trionale. T. i-iii. M.DCC.XLTV. 4to. (On> the site of 
Brest, Fort Ponchartrain is indicated in the map facing 
p. 418, tom. T. The Carte de I'Amerique Septentrio- 



48o BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

nale dress^e par N. B. Ing. du Roy, et Hydrog. de la 
Marine, 1743, in torn, i, will serve to fill up the gap 
in our knowledge of the coast between the time of 
Henry Hudson and of the British Admiralty surveys.) 

Journal of a voyage to North America. 

Undertaken by order of the French king, containing 
the geographical description and natural history of 
that country, particularly Canada. Together with an 
account of the customs, characters, religion, manners, 
and traditions of the original inhabitants. In a series of 
letters to the Duchess of Lesdiguieres. Translated 
from the French. In two volumes, i, 11. London, 1761 ; 
8vo, pp. 382. 

Chavaiine (y.). The literature on the polar regions 
of the earth. By Dr. J. Chavanne, Dr. A. Karpf, and 
F. Chevalier de la Monnier. Edited by the Imp. Roy. 
Geographical Society of Vienna. Vienna, 1878. 

Chimmo ( VV?). A visit to the northeast coast of 
Labrador during the autumn of 1867, by H.M.S. 
Gannet. Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc. London, 1868. Vol. 
XXXVIII. pp. 258-281. (With a map of the coast, espe- 
cially detailed as regards Hamilton Inlet.) 

(^Commander). A visit to the fishing- 
grounds of Labrador by H.M.S. Gannet in the autumn 
of 1867. (Nautical Magazine, 1869, March, pp. 1 13-120; 
April, pp. T87-195). 

Coats i^W.). Notes on the geography of Hudson's 
Bay. Being the remarks of Captain W. Coats in many 
voyages to that locality betv^een the years 1 72 7 and 1 75 1 . 
Edited by John Barrow. Hakluyt Society. 1852, 8vo. 

Colding; . On the laws of currents in ordinary 

conduits and in the sea. Nature, Dec. 1871. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 48 H 

Converse {Frank H^. A Sunday afternoon in Lab- 
rador. (The Christian Union, Oct. 23, 1884; p. 391.) 

Cook (y., and others). The North American pilot 
for Newfoundland, Labrador, the Gulf and River St. 
Lawrence, etc. London, 1775, 22 sheets. 

Cook {S.. M. Lane, J. Gilbert, J. Gaudy). The 
Newfoundland pilot, containing a collection of directions 
for sailinsf round the whole island, including etc., and 
part of the coast of Labrador. London, Th. Jefferys, 
1769. 

Cranz {David). (Annals of the Missions of the 
United Brethren in Greenland.) Intr. to Cranz. 

. Historic von Gronland, enthaltend die 

Beschreibunor des Landes und der Einwohner, insbe- 
sondere die Geschichte der dortigen Mission zu Neu 
Herrnhut und Lichtenfels. 2 Thle. Barby. Leipzig, 
1765,1770; Kumnier, 1770, 1780. Mit betrachtlichen 
Zusatzen, und Anmerkungen zur nattirlichen Geschichte 
bis auf das Jahr 1779, 1780; Ntirnbcrg u. Leipzig,. 
Weigel C. Schneider, 1782, 8vo. Mit Kupf. u. Karten., 

. Historic du Groenland. Trad, de I'alle- 

mand. 11 torn. Leipzig, 1765 ; 8vo. 

— • . The history of Greenland, containing a. 

description of the country and its inhabitants, with an' 
account of the Mission of the United Brethren in Lab- 
rador. 2 vols., 8 pi., Barby, 1765 ; London, 1767 ; Ana- 
sterdam, 1767; London, 1820; 8vo. 

, PLstorie van Groenland. Uit het Hoog-^ 

dutch. Haarlem, C. H. Bohn, 1767; Amsterdam, 1767. 

. Anmerkninger over de tre forste Boger 

af Davis Cranze's Historic om Gronland. Kjobenhaven,. 
1 771 ; 8vo. 



482 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

Cranz {David). Alte und neue Briiderhistorie oder 
Geschichte der evangelischen Brtiderunitat (Gronland 
und Labrador). Barby, 1771 ; 8vo. 

Curtis {Roger). Particulars of Labrador. Philosoph- 
ical transactions of the Royal Society. London, lxiv, 

374-5. 

Dahlmann. Forschungen, vol. i. (Places Vinland 

on the coast of Labrador. J. Winsor's Narr. and Grit. 

Hist. America, i, 99.) 

Davies. (Account of Invuktoke Inlet, etc.). Trans. 
Lit. and Hist. Soc. Quebec, iv, 70, 1843. 

De Costa {B. F.). The pre-Columbian discovery of 
America by the Northmen, with translations from the 
Icelandic Sagas. Second edition. Albany, 1890 (p.88). 

Dewitz (A. voit). An der Kiiste Labrador. Nicsky, 
1881. 

Eskimos zu Nain in Labrador. (Journal fiir die 
neuesten Land und See-reisen, lxxxviii, 1838; p. Zll-^ 

Espejo {Antoni de). New Mexico, otherwise the 
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Right Hon. the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty : 
I chiefly engraved by | the late Thomas Jefferys, geog- 
rapher to the king. | On thirty-six large copper-plates. | 
London : | Printed according to Act of Parliament and 
sold by R. Sayer and J. Bennett, No. 53, in Fleet Street. 
I MDCCLxxix. I N.B. Of whom may be had Sailing Direc- 
tions to the above charts. 

A new and enlarged edition of this work was published 
in 1799, containing 61 charts on -^"j copper-plates. 
Printed and published by Robert Laurie and James 
Whittle. 

(The edition of which the title is quoted above seems 
to be simply a reprint of the ist edition, which appeared 
in 1775. I have not been able to see a copy of the latter, 
but from its title on Harvard College Library Catalogue 
cards, think the title is exactly as given below. 

Sailing directions | for this | North American Pilot: | 
containing the | Gulf and River St. Lawrence, | the 
whole island of Newfoundland, | including | the Strait 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 499 

of Belle Isle, | and the coast of Labrador. | Giving a 
particular account, etc. | London. | Printed for R. Sayer 
and J. Bennett. | mdcclxxv. | 

(Small 4to. Divided into sections, each paged sepa- 
rately. 148 pp. in all.) 

Partie de I'Amerique Sept., qui comprend le Canada, 
la Louisiane, le Labrador, le Groenland, la Nouv. Angle- 
terre, la Floride, etc. p. Bonne. Carte color. 2 feuilles. 
Paris, 1 77 1. Chaque 30 x 44 cm. 

Labrador and Greenland, including the north-west 
passage of Hudson, Frobisher, and Davis, with Plan of 
Man vers Port, 1808- 1863. 

Chart of part of the coast of Labrador, from Cape 
Charles to Sandwich Bay, surveyed by order of Hon. 
Commodore Byron. By Michael Lane, surveyor. 2 ed. 
London, W. Faden, 1809. 

Morse {^Jedidiali). The American Gazetteer, etc. 
(Map.) Third edit. Boston, July, 1810. Art. Labra- 
dor. (The map gives some names of places on the 
Labrador coast which we have not seen on other 
maps.) 

The American Universal Geography;: 

etc. (Map). Seventh edition. Vol. 11, 18 19. 8vo. 

Reichel {Levin Th?). Missionatlas der Briider-Unitat. 
15 Karten in Qu. Folio, Farbendruck mit Text, Herrn- 
hut, Expedition der Missions- Verwaltung, 1861. 

Labrador. Spear Point to Camp Islands, including 
St. Lewis Sound and Inlet, surv. by Bayfield, 1835, 
1:72,000. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1863, No. 133. 

Labrador Coast, Hamilton Inlet. Capt. Sir F. Mc- 
Clintock, i860. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1864. 

Labrador Coast, Indian Harbor, Commander Chim- 



500 BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

mo, 1867, 1:12,172. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, 
No. 222. 

Labrador Coast, Webeck and Hopedale Harbors and 
Allik Bay. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. Lon- 
don, Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 223. 

Labrador Coast, Indian Tickle and Occasional Har- 
bors. Commander Chimmo, 1867, 1:24,344. London, 
Hydrogr. Office, 1868, No. 225. 

Labrador Coast, Domino Run. Lieut. J. J. A. 
Gravener, 1867, 1:18,255. London, Hydrogr. Office. 

Labrador Coast, Cape Charles to Sandwich Bay, vari- 
ous authorities, corrected to 1867. 1:243,440. London, 
Hydrogr. Office, 1869, No. 263. 

Labrador, with plans of Port Manvers and Eclipse 
Harbor. London, Hydrogr. Office, 1871, No. 1422. 

Labrador, Commander Maxwell's Chart. London, 
1871? 

Reichel {L . Th?) . Labrador. Aivektok oder Eskimo 
Bay, 1873. Lith. 1:2,300,000. Missionsblatt der 
Brudergemeinde. 

Labrador, compiled from various documents in the 
Hydrographic Office, London, 1881. (Large corrections, 
June, 1 88 1. Small corrections ix, 1884, with plans of 
Port Manvers and Eclipse Harbor.) 

Weiz and Packard. Map of Labrador, compiled by 
J. Leuthner, from British Admiralty maps, and an un- 
published Moravian map (prepared by Rev. Samuel 
Weiz). Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, 
No. 4, 1887. 

Cape Cod to Belle Isle. Imray & Son, London, 1886. 
(" By far the best map we have of this coast." Ganong, 
p. 126.) 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 5OI 

Winsor {Justin). Bibliography of Ptolemy's Geog- 
raphy. Harvard University Bulletin. Bibliographical 
Contributions, No. i8, 1884. 

Ganong {W. F.). Cartography of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence from Cartier to Champlain. Proc. and Trans. 
Royal Soc. of Canada, vol. vii. for 1889. 1890. 



ERRATA. 



Pp. 120 and 140, for Cape St. Michael's read Cape St. Michael. 
P. 396. The remainder of the list of insects will be found on pp. 446 and 447. 
P. 484. Add to Bibliography, Humboldt {Alexander von). Examen critique. 
See p, 29, foot-note. 



INDEX. 



Abbot, C. C, 245 
Acadian fauna, 337 
Ailik Head, 318 
Alca impennis, 342, 360 
AUagaigai, Mount, 6, 182 
Allen, J. A., 406 
Alpine fauna, 176, 356 

flora, 66, 341 
American Island, 166 
Anorthosite formation, 282 
Anse-au-Loup. 118 
Anse-au-Sablon, 236, 281 
Aphaniie, 285 
Arachnida, 385 
Arctic fauna, 63, 356, 365 
Arenaria groeniandica, 63, 340, 345 
Ascidians, 396 
Auk, great, 256, 342. 360 
Aulatsivik gneiss, 284 
Island, 228 
Auroras, 78 
Bache, Mount, 7, 294 
Banks, Labrador, 241, 318 
Basalt, doleritic, 134 
Battle Island, 136 

Point, '221 
Bayfield's charts, 58 
Beaches, raised, 130, 162, 170, 178, 

195. 206, 210, 230, 315, 353, 305, 

307, 309, 310, 311 
Beacon, 197 
Bear, black, 34 

white, 35, 149, 160, 165, 357 
Beetles, 387 

Bell, Robert, 8, 9, 301, 322 
Belle Isle, 119, 129, 134, 280 
Belles Amours, no, 112, 234, 281, 

316 



Bethuks, 257 
Biarne's Voyage, 21 
Birch, dwarf, 177 
paper, 151 
Bird rocks, 96 
Birds, list of, 406 
Birds, sea, 91, 126, 167 
Black and White Island, 168, 289 
Blanc Sablon, 43, 116, 219, 234, 237, 

307 
Boas, Franz, 226 
Bonne Esperance, 232 
Bowlders, 150, 303 
Brachioppds, 373 
Bradford, William, 93 
Bradore, 116, 262, 280 

Bay, 281 

Hills, 6 
Brest, 108, 239, 265 
Butterflies, 395 
Button's voyage, 56 
Cabot. Mount, 165 
Cabot's voyages, 33 
Cambrian rocks, 117, 281 
Caniapuscaw, Lake, 15 
Canso, Gut of, 94 
Capelin, 154, 401 
Carabus groenlandicus, 160 
Caribou, 209 
Caribou Island, 65, 85 

upper, 137 
Carpenter, C. C, 64, 245, 266 
Cartier, J., Voyages of, 41 

Mount, 108, 109 
jCartwright, George, 256 
Cartwright's Tickle, 290 
Castle Island, 286, 307 
Cephalopods, 379 

503 



504 



INDEX. 



Chadbourne, Paul A., 60 

Charles, Cape, 136 

Charlevoix, 258 

Chateau Bay, 130, 239, 247, 250, 311, 

Chert, 2go 

Chidley, Cape, 8,279 

Chimo, Fort, 16, 231, 406. 

Chionobas, 167 

semidea, 341 
Chudleigh, Cape, 8, 279 
Clays, Leda, 323, 339, 351 
Clione limacina, 112 
Cloudberry, 69 
Coast, elevation of, 322, 324 
Coats, W., 249 
Cod, bull-dog, 179 

fishery, 124, 126, 146, 154, 156, 
240, 398 
Coelenterates, 368 
Coleoptera, 387 
Cormorant, 103 
Cortereal's voyage, 37 
Crantz, 250 
Crustaceans, 381 
Curlewberry, 63, 107 
Curlews, 78, 91 
Cusk, 399 
Davis Inlet, 53 
Davis' voyage, 52 
Despair Harbor, 19 
Devil's Dining Table, 120, 128, 134 
Dewitz, A., von, 273 
Diptera, 390 
Domino gneiss, 159, 286 

Harbor, 159, 218, 286, 310 

Run, 159, 219 
Dredging, 76, no, 113, 125, 127, 145, 

153, 160, 218, 223 
Duck, eider, loi, 105 
Duffy, 179, 399 

Dumplin Harbor, 161, 164, 218, 287 
Echinoderms, 370 
Eggers, 104 

Elevation of coast, 322, 324 
Entry Island, 96 
Eskimo, 67 

camp, 193 

dress, 200 

game, 254 

graves, 207, 263 

in New Foundland,246, 252 

house, 270 

longevity of, 208, 269 

mean height, 199 

numbers of, 235, 261, 272 

population, 235 



Eskimo, ruins, 262 

their former range, 245 
yearly life, 275 
Esquimaux Island, 265, 267 

River, i, 2, 11, 73, 74, 80, 

232 
Falco candicans, 181 
Fauna, circumpolar, 337, 356 
Fiords, 18, 228 
Fisheries, 124, 126, 132, 146, 154, 

156, 240, 243 

herring, 132, 240 
Fishes, 397 

Fishing Ship Harbor, 138 
Flies, 390 

Fly, black, 74, 86, 89 
Flora, Labrador, 63, 69, 143, 201, 344 
Flobnder, 398 
Ford's Bight, 191 
Forests, dwarf, 86 
Forteau, 117 

Fossils, quaternary, 75, 79, 107, 124 
Fox, 133, 187, 209 

blue, 180, 209 
Frobisher's voyage, 48 
Frog, 126, 405 
Game, 72, loi. 133, 167, 194 
Gasteropods, 376 
Geology, 279 
George, River, 15 
Gibbons' voyage, 56 
Glacial beds, 336 

marks, 150, 216, 293 
Glaciers, 172, 219 
Gneiss, Domino, 159, 286 

Laurentian, 280 
Gore Island Harbor, 316 
Grand Falls, 231 

River, 121, 231 
Granite, 285 
Grasshopper, 150 
Greely Islands, 163 
Greville's Fort, 129, 239 
Groswater Bay, 166 
Grouse, 73 
Gull Island, 319 
Hake, 399 
Hamilton Inlet, 53, 166, 288, 298 

geology of, 285, 288 
Ri,ver, 12 
Handy, Ichabod, 93 
Harrison, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286 
Hebron, 199, 311 
Helluland, 29, 32 
Hemiptera, 386 
Henley Island, 129, 310 



INDEX. 



505 



Henley Harbor, 120, 132, 220, 280, 

281, 285, 307 
Herring fishery, 132, 240, 243, 318, 

403 
Hind, H. Y., 10, 13, 318 
History of Labrador, 234 
Holme, Randle F., 231 
Hopedale, 197, 199, 253, 283, 286 

310, 323 
Horsford, E. N., 30 
Horsechops Island, 165, 301 
House, winter, 124 
Hudson Bay Co. posts, 234 
Hudson's voyage, 56 
Huntington Island, 163, 287, 289. 
Hydroids, 368 
Icebergs, 135, 157 
Ice, floe, no, 173, 205, 317, 357 

foot, 173, 313 

Tickle, 170, 218 
Indian Harbor, 170, 216, 288, 299 

Harbor Islands, 321 
Indians, red, 188, 256, 359 
Insects, 63, 102, 141, 150, 176, 207, 

225, 386 
Iron, magnetic, 285 
Isle of Demons, 119 

Ponds, 158, 289 
Ivuctoke Inlet, 53, 166 
Jasper, 290 
Kaubkonga River, 229 
Kauk River, 229 
Kaumajet, Mount, g, 227, 284 
Kayak, 207 
Keith, Lake, 285 
Kenamou River, 13 
Kiglapeit, Mount, 9, 227, 284 
Killer, 152 

Kippokok Bay, 195, 255, 318 
Koch, R., 227, 274 
Kohl, J. G., 21 
Kohlmeister, 2, 15 
Koksoak River, 15, 406 
Knoch, 2, 15 
Kypocock Bay, 318 
Labradorite, 282 
Labrador current, 320, 357 

Maps of, 3 
Lamellibranchs, 373 
Latrobe, B., 273 
Lauren tian rocks, 117, 279 
Leda arctica, 347, 350 

portlandica, 347, 350 
clays, 292, 323, 339, 351 
Leif's voyage, 27, 30 
Lepidoptera, 391 



Lieber, O. M., 284 

Limacina helicina, 215 

Lobster, 71, 203, 384 

Long Island, 163 

Lunoid glacial marks, 216, 298 

Mackerel, 397 

Magdalen Islands, 96, 223 

Maggovik Bay, 209 

Magnetite, 285, 290 

Mammals, 442 

Mealy mountains, 6, 13, 159, 164 

Mecatina, Cape, 100 

Little, Island, 99, 280, 300 
Mercator's map, 46 
Meshikumau River, 2, 11 73, 74, 80 
Minerva, 239 
Mirage, 99, 136, 138 
Misery, Mount, 6,182. 
Moisie River, 10 
Molluscs, 373 

quarternary, 326 
Montaignais, 14, 67, 189, 239, 264 
Moravian settlements, 199 
Mosquito, 86, 191 
Moths, 391 
Mount Allagaigai, 6,182 

Cabot, 165 

Cartier, 109 

Misery, 6, 182 
Mountaineers, 14, 67, 189, 239, 256, 

264 
Mountains of Labrador, 6, 7, 8 
Mugford, Cape, 9, 319 
Murre, loi, 170, 180 
Muskrat, 155 
Myriopoda, 286 
Nain, 199, 327, 229, 253, 311 
Nachvak Inlet, 9, 284, 315 
Nascopi Indians, 239, 256, 264 
Nasquapee Indians, 239, 256, 264 
Nautilus, voyage of, 60 
Newfoundland, 61 
Newfoundlanders, 240 
Nisbet's Harbor, 191 
Norsemen, 21 
North, Cape, 163, 289 
Nucula expansa, 108 
Occasional Harbor, 139 
Odonata, 386 

Okkak, 199, 201, 202, 227, 253 
Orthoptera, 386 
Otter, 68 

Pandorina arenosa, 108 
Parroqueet Island, 43 ^ 
Penguin, 256 
Pike's Harbor, 164 



5o6 



INDEX. 



Pikkintit Islands, 284 
Pitt's Arm, 124, 308, 323 
Plants, list of, 447 
Platyptera, 387 
Plectoptera, 387 

Polyommatus franklinii, 177, 207 
Polyps, 368 
Polyzoans, 371 
Porcupine, Cape, 321 
Port Burwell, 9 
Manvers, 9 
Neuf, 234 
Potentilla tridentata, 69, 340, 345 
Ptarmigan, 72 
Puffin, 83, 90, 341 
Pussel, 64, 75 
Rama, 228 
Reichel, L. T., 274 
Rigolet, 167 
Rise of land, 322 
River terrace, 322 
Robin, 151, 410 
Roger's Harbor, 184 
St. Francis, Cape, 138 

Harbor, 138 

Lewis Bay, 137 

Sound, 319 

Michael, Cape, 140 
Bay, 40 

Modeste, 118 

Paul's Bay, 265 
Salamander, 106, 112 
Salmon Bay, 71, 87, 222 

Fishery, 133, 154, 186, 187, 
193. 216, 399 
Sand, magnetic iron, 285 
Sealer, 121 
Seal fishery, 122, 145 

Island, 158 
Seal's flippers, 81 
Semed , 18 
Shallop Island, 117 
Shag's nest, 103 
Shells, quarternary, 326 
Silurian fossils, 325 
Sister Islands, 163^ 
Skralings, 246 

Sloop Harbor, 168, 179, 288, 310, 313 
Snails, 194, 202 
South River, 15 
Spear Harbor, 138 



Spear Point, 138 

Spotted Island, 158, 162. 319 

Spruce, 188 

cat, 191 

skunk, 192 

white, 191 
Square Island, 138, 140. 282 
Stag Bay, 182, 185 
Strawberry Harbor, 190, 215, 283,. 

286, 308, 313 
Stony Island, 163, 319 
Syenite, Laurentian, 280 
Syrtensian fauna, 334, 33S 
Taconic rocks, 281 
Terraces, river, 322 

rock, 144, 197, 315 
Thomas Bay, 209, 210, 283, 310 
Thoresby, Mount, 284 
Tickle, 140, 183 
Tilt, 121, 141 
Tinker, 180 

Island, 179 
Toad, 160, 405 

Trap dykes, 168, 285, 286, 289 
Trees, northern limits of, 201 
Trichoptera, 387 
Trout, 68 

salmon, 193, 400 
Tub Island, 165, 218,287,288,289,299 
Tuckermel bush, 86 
Tucking bush, 86 
Tunicates, 396 
Turner, L. M., 231, 406 
Tylor, E. B., 246 
Ungava Bay, 406 
Vetromile, Father, 258 
Walrus, 104, 147, 162, 366 
Wasp, 87, 103 
Watson, Sereno, 473 
Weasel, 68,114 
Webuc, Cape, 181, 215, 283, 286 

Range, 185 
Weiz, Samuel, 5, 226 
Whale, humpback, 137 

sperm, 220 
Whiteley, W. H., 232 
Wolf, 194 
Wolverene, 203 
Worms, 380 
Zoar, 199 
Zoology of Labrador, 355 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XL 



Recent Explorations. — Rediscovery of the Grand 

Falls. 

On page 231 we referred to Mr. Randle Holme's ascent 
of the Grand River, to a point within fifty miles of the 
Grand Falls, which he claimed to be " the most stupen- 
dous falls in the world," giving a greatly exaggerated 
estimate of their height. During the summer of 1891, 
the Bowdoin College expedition to Labrador, in charge 
of Professor Leslie A. Lee, sent a party up the Grand 
River, which happily solved the mystery which has hung 
over the subject, and thus achieved the most important 
geographical discovery which has been made in the 
interior of Labrador since the first discovery of this cata- 
ract by white men. The following account has been 
prepared from dispatches, sent to the daily press, and has 
been kindly revised by Professor Lee and Mr. Cary. 

The expedition left Rockland, Me., early in July in 
the Julia Decker, a schooner of ninety tons, the party 
consisting of nineteen members. 

The party left Rigolet for Grand River, July 27, 
equipped with two Rushton boats, a kodak, surveying 
instruments, fire-arms, and provisions for a month. E. 

507 



508 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. 

B. Young and D. M. Cole were in one boat ; W. R. 
Smith and Austin Gary, who was chief of the exploring 
party, in the other. 

Twenty-five miles from the mouth of the river the first 
falls were reached. They make a descent of 70 feet in 
two leaps, and necessitate a portage up a steep ascent of 
210 feet, then half a mile through woods, and finally a 
descent to the river of 140 feet. With much labor this 
portage was accomplished in four hours. A cache of 
provisions was made below the falls. Then the struggle 
began. Up to this point the current had been easy and 
the river about a mile wide ; but above the falls the river 
narrowed somewhat and the current became swifter, so 
that tracking was rendered necessary at times. This 
was no small labor, as the banks are rugged and jagged 
rocks, bowlders and fallen timber obstructed the way 
of the trackers. After a struggle of forty miles of this 
sort the Gull Island Rapids presented a still more serious 
difficulty in the way of tracking. Here the boats had to 
be lightened and guided through a short but extremely 
difficult rapid — a slow and laborious task. For a dis- 
tance of fifteen miles above, the river flowed very swiftly 
between high wooded banks, rendering rowing very 
often impossible and tracking difficult. 

After this the next hard work was in the Horseshoe 
Rapids. In these a most unfortunate accident happened 
to one of the boats. While tracking around a turn the 
boat in charge of Gary and Smith was over-turned, the 
keel and sharp prow ill adapting it to such rapid water. 
A large part of the provisions, cooking utensils, the shot- 
gun, the barometer, and a revolver were lost. But though 
crippled the party were undismayed and pushed on up 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 509 

to the Mininipi Rapids, the most formidable of all 
except the Gull Island Rapids. The route here laid 
through a burnt district. Precipitous banks lined the 
river and the current was very fierce. After a stretch 
of smooth water and then alternate rowing and tracking, 
next in succession came the Mouni Rapids, which were 
comparatively easy. Between the Mininipi and the 
Mouni another cache was made. After passing the 
Mouni Rapids the voyagers glided into Lake Wami- 
nikapou, a most beautiful sheet of water 40 miles in 
length and 150 miles from the mouth of the river. The 
scenery here was simply grand. High precipitous shores 
studded with high groves, towered six or eight hundred 
feet above the placid bosom of the lake. 

Holme in 1887 had succeeded in reaching the middle 
of the lake when he was obliged to relinquish his under- 
taking, estimating his distance from the falls at 50 miles, 
20 of which would have been in the dead water of the 
lake. 

The Bowdoin party had a comparatively easy time 
rowing across, and had pushed five miles beyond when 
a halt was called because of the disablement of one of 
the party. For some days Young had been suffering 
from a severe sore on his hand, which, irritated by row- 
ing and aggravated by exposure, was beginning to 
develop serious symptoms and was very painful. Owing 
to this and the loss of provisions in the Horseshoe 
Rapids it was decided to divide the party — Cole to con- 
tinue with Gary, and Young and Smith to return. Up 
to this time the party had been' eleven days on the river. 
Young and Smith made the return to the mouth in five 
days without incident. They were well received by Mr. 



510 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. 

McLaren, Hudson Bay Co. 's factor at Northwest River, 
and thence were conveyed across Lake Melville in a 
yawl, with their Rushton boat in tow. During the night 
a severe storm arose and filled the Rushton, making it 
necessary to cut it loose. Parties going up the lake 
some days later found the boat dashed to pieces on the 
rocks. Young and Smith reached Rigolet August i8, 
and found very comfortable quarters with Mr. Bell, factor 
of the Hudson Bay Co., who showed them every kind- 
ness. 

Meanwhile Cary and Cole pushed on for sixty-five 
miles, finding the distance much farther than it had been 
estimated. Most of this was made in easy rowing water, 
but tracking was necessary for the last eight or ten miles. 
At this point a short reconnoitre satisfied the men that 
it would be impossible to proceed farther with the boat 
because of the extremely heavy water above. Conse- 
quently a cache was made of the boat, and all unneces- 
sary luggage and provisions, and the two men struck 
out through the woods to gain the plateau, which was 
a very arduous task. Upon reaching the table-land a 
mountain, rising from five to eight hundred feet from 
the surface, was sighted about six miles away ; and as it 
was the highest land anywhere around they ascended to 
get a view of their surroundings. The whole country 
was spread out beneath them, but there was as yet no 
sign of the falls. They called this mountain Mt. Hyde 
in honor of the president of Bowdoin College. Bear- 
ings were taken from the summit and an attempt made 
of surveying, but the black-flies became intolerable and 
compelled them to beat a retreat to the river valley, 
where they camped for the night. Next day the journey 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 51 1 

was continued for seven miles along the river to a point 
where the river issues from a remarkable gorge, worn 
out of the solid Archaean rock five hundred feet or more 
in depth and from 150 feet to a quarter of a mile in 
width. 

Once more they were obliged to take to the high 
ground, and for the rest of that day and part of the next 
skirted the gorge. They were proceeding in this man- 
ner when a distant rumbling led them to approach the 
river. It was flowing at their own level. Below them 
were the long-sought-for falls, and three cheers for Bow- 
doin immediately mingled with their roar. 

As was expected, reports concerning them were greatly 
exaggerated. The falls themselves are 150 feet wide 
and do not exceed 150 feet in height. For five or six 
miles above was a series of heavy rapids with several 
smaller falls varying from 10 to 25 feet in height and 
making about 100 feet more fall. The water, as it ap- 
proached the brink of the Grand Falls, makes a long, 
graceful bend downward and then shoots straight down- 
ward into the canon. The river above the falls flows 
almost due south by compass (really S. E.) while im- 
mediately upon striking the bottom of the gorge it 
makes a sharp turn to the east and continues in that 
direction for several hundred yards when it again resumes 
its general southeasterly course, and goes roaring down 
the canon in heavy rapids. Although reports concern- 
ing them were greatly exaggerated, the falls were found 
to be truly grand. But probably the most remarkable 
feature of all is the great gorge, worn, as it is in the solid 
grani.te. It is probably one of the oldest drainage lines 
in the world. This was named the Bowdoin Canon. 



512 REDISCOVERY OF GRAND FALLS. 

Several hours were spent at the falls measuring and 
photographing, but the results are as yet not available. 

The Labrador Plateau has been estimated by other 
parties to be 2,000 feet above the sea-level, but owing to 
the loss of the barometer our men were unable to deter- 
mine the accuracy of this estimate. The plateau is for 
the most part level with occasional prominences. It is 
well wooded with spruce timber, the largest of which are 
perhaps eight inches through. A heavy carpet of moss 
lies underfoot and there is very little underbrush to make 
travelling difficult. Innumerable lakes dot the surface 
in all directions, a large chain of which are undoubtedly 
drained by the Grand River. The black-flies on the high 
ground were terrible. 

The falls were reached on the morning of the 13th 
of August. On the next day the successful explorers 
started to retrace their course of 300 miles. They had 
reached the end of their provisions and were worn out 
and hungry. On the afternoon of the 15th, with no 
little joy, they sighted the location of their cache of boat, 
luggage, and provisions. But their joy was soon turned 
to dismay, for, instead of the pleasant sight they had ex- 
pected, nothing but smoking and charred remains greeted 
their eyes. Rifle, ammunition, instruments, boat, pro- 
visions — everything that had been left behind was burned, 
and there they were nearly 300 miles from the mouth of 
the river. It is supposed that the camp-fire still hung in 
the moss and peat soil after it was thought to be com- 
pletely extinguished, and later revived and spread to the 
cache. 

About three pints of parched flour and as much rice, 
together with one can each of burned baked beans and 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER XI. 513 

tongue, a 32-calibre revolver, a small axe, fish-line, and 
a few matches were all they had to rely upon for a safe 
voyage back, nor did the resources of the country war- 
rant them in expecting much from that quarter. For 
eight days the two men built rafts, tramped and floated 
down the river, travelling a distance of 150 miles with no 
other food than the above-mentioned provisions, an oc- 
casional squirrel, and berries. Black-flies harried them 
terribly, and made their condition almost unbearable. 
At last the cache between the Mininipi and Mouni 
Rapids was reached. From this they obtained five 
pounds of buckwheat and a can of tongue to last them 
for the next seventy-five miles to the cache below the 
first falls. By continual rafting and tramping they 
reached the cabin of an old trapper, near the mouth of 
the river, August 29th, ragged and shoeless and much 
worn with hardships and privations. Thence they were 
conveyed to Northwest River, where they received kind 
treatment at the hands of Mr. McLaren, and from 
there went across Lake Melville to Rigolet in a yawl, 
arriving on the afternoon of September ist. The main 
expedition had been waiting for them in that vicinity for 
six days, and was beginning to get anxious, for they were 
due August 25th, and according to the report brought 
back by Young and Smith were likely to be on time. 
When at last they did arrive they were welcomed on 
board with every demonstration of joy. 



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